Fireman from Amazar

Recently, the commander of the municipal fire department of the village of Amazar, Mogochinsky district, Transbaikalia Konstantin Knyazev, announced an perpetual hunger strike, seeking a complete payment of salaries, issuing special fire shoes and equipment. On March 15, he suspended the hunger strike, according to the common version, because the frightened authorities rushed and promised three boxes ... In addition, volunteers of all Rus' collected money in social networks and purchased the necessary equipment.

But the stars converged in the sky so that on the same day in the UN Human Rights Council, the People’s Republic of People's Republic of Council has undertook to control human rights violations, social and environmental damage caused by the projects of Chinese companies abroad. Tell me, what is the connection of the uncle of the uncle in Amazar and the weighty Chinese cranberry in Geneva brought to despair?

With Chinese capital, slavery and assertive conversations about the "strategic partnership" and "geopolitical necessity" the ruin of Siberia has acquired new, unprecedented from socialism.

So, on March 15, the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council, a miraculous heart approved the Report of the PRC as part of a regular universal mechanism for reviews of the policy of human rights (Universal Periodic Review). Of the 346 (!) Recommendations received from the UN members, China agreed from 284. Beijing diplomats rejected as politically motivated recommendations regarding the persecution of dissenting and mass re -education camps for Muslims. The head of the delegation, Mr. Le, complained that critics find fault with the little things, underestimating China’s stunning success in the protection of the socio-economic rights of citizens, expressed in raising, due to the poverty line of 740 million people in just 40 years, which became possible thanks to economic development projects initiated in “backward” areas.

Among the 284 Beijing Recommendations, about 20 are related to human rights to a healthy environment. For each consistent recommendation, China is obliged to submit a report on its implementation after 4.5 years during the next review. In particular, China promised to ensure that investment projects both in the country and abroad observe human rights, take care of the environment and did not exhaust the natural resource base. He also promised to create legal mechanisms that guarantee that the activities of the Chinese business would not have a negative impact on human rights abroad. China, perhaps, the first country of the world, which gave this kind of obligation within the framework of a not very favorite human rights mechanism.

In the vastness of Siberia, hundreds, or even thousands of projects with Chinese participation are carried out as a god will put on the soul, by multiplying the Russian, maybe the Chinese businessman to squeeze out all possible benefits from the situation. The result of many already implemented projects are conflicts with the local population of varying degrees of intensity, exhaustion of forests and waters, and degradation of the environment. Our managers and businessmen know how to achieve such results without Chinese, but with Chinese capital, labor and assertive conversations about the "strategic partnership" and "geopolitical necessity" the ruin of Siberia has acquired new scale, unprecedented since Soviet socialism.

If anyone comes to the Chinese embassy with a claim, then there is still one answer: "We steadfastly adhere to the" non -interference policy ", rake shit and put up the violators - the sovereign business of the departments of the receiving state." But on March 15, China, as part of the international legal system, apparently admitted for the first time that the responsibility for the consequences of its investment abroad lies not only on reicative countries, but also on countries-sources of capital. Now it depends on the civilian civil society whether Chinese officials will be put on the brakes or will be accepted as a guide to action.

Here is the village of Amazar, the once nodal station of the Trans -Siberian Railway, and now the outskirts of the oikumena. It is here that the Fire Princess Firefighting, containing a family with three children for 18 thousand rubles per month, starves. And on the outskirts of the village since 2009, the famous Amazar cellulose-industrial plant-a long-term construction, where Chinese investors have already invested 32 billion rubles and promise to invest another 300 ... In the village, people drink rotten water, as a small water intake structure was demolished with a flood, but at 10 kilometers in the tiega of the drainage of the plant, the river blocked the river Amazar, depriving local fishing and destroying the population of the Siberian Timmen. All the Amazar district forestry is leased to the plant, and it is increasingly difficult for local residents to get wood for their own small needs. Mostly the Chinese work at the plant, and several dozen local workers are forced to sign a salary in several places in order to create the illusion of more local employment. The village from the plant gets small handouts - in history he invested about 35 million rubles, or 0.1% of investments into social needs. But on the other hand, the village thrown by the authorities counts only on the plant: heating at school refused - the plant brought the heat guns, we must report on the holding of the Victory holiday - the plant allocated 5,000 rubles ...

In 2013, residents of the village at public hearings during an environmental examination firmly stated that they did not want to create a cellulose plant, but the result of the will of citizens was, as they believe here, was falsified by the head of the village, after which the regional authorities gave green light to construction. For 15 years, the authorities of the Trans -Baikal Territory have been telling fairy tales about how the Mogochinsky district, in particular Amazar, will develop, because 2000 jobs will develop, for the creation of the plant. During the construction of the plant, one sixth population escaped from Amazar due to the lack of any real prospects.

The new acting governor, who was appointed in Transbaikalia, has already stated that it was necessary to build a new bridge across the Amur in China in the wild taiga to ensure the Amazar cellulose complex, because so far the President’s plenipotentiary ordered. At the same time, neither shaky nor patch indicators of the completion of this epic long -term construction suddenly rode 20%in the middle of the harsh winter, if you imprisonly believe the reporting edges on the website.

And no matter what happened to the plant, Chinese state bodies never responded to letters, because dealing with all this is the "sovereign right of the Russian authorities."

But now China has given an obligation to be responsible for infringing on human rights where there are Chinese investments. Therefore, the question of why the Bosom Fireman walks in the village, which houses the largest Chinese investment facility, falls under Chinese obligations to the UN. As well as the question of how the focus of poverty and degradation in the Amazar is related and plans for the reconstruction of the border crossing for the export of raw materials. And for an inaccessible fish for local forests, and for a fish ruined by a dam, and not only the Russian, but also the Chinese side can now answer for the obvious falsification of the results of the hearings. And this is right, because the ugly result of the ten -year "development" of Amazar to a state of poverty and ruin will be achieved by the joint efforts of Russian officials and Chinese investors.

Of course, the behavior of Chinese companies abroad will not change overnight. But people in the field have now received an additional understandable and direct lever of pressure - through international human rights mechanisms. The expression "complain to the UN", which meant in Soviet and Russian slang - to write from hopelessness to the village of grandfather, may now acquire a new sound ...

Evgeny Simonov - Ecologist

The "Opinion" expressed in the heading of the point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial office