In the Cheremza tent camp of indigenous activists in the Kemerovo region, police have started to detain protesters

This morning, August 13, 2020, an escalation of confrontation began in a protest camp near the Shor village Cheremza in the Kemerovo region. In this tent camp, indigenous and local activists have protested against a new coal mining project “Kuznetskiy Yuzhny” during the last two months. Police detained several protesters.

The initiator of the protest action became a Shor indigenous activist Alexey Chispiyakov who published an appeal to indigenous peoples of the world during the International Day of indigenous peoples on August 9.

In his appeal, he said: “We will oppose this new mining project, but here are already a few of us – Shor indigenous people. We believe that it is better to die defending our land than to die cowardly betraying it. Not an inch of our land will we give to the new coal mining project “Kuznetskiy Yuzhny.” Taiga is our home, and the right to protect our home, our health, and our children’s health and life is the right given to us by our ancestors and spirits. And we are exercising this right.”

This morning, the mining company started to build a fence to enclose the industrial site, and protesters tried to stand peacefully there to stop the work of the builders. When the police began to detain people, protesters started to chant political slogans in which they demanded the resignation of the Kemerovo region’s governor.