The administration of the famous reserve evicts former director from departamental apartment
The article by Elena Tribuleva,
Published in «Vecherniy Brest» (The Evening Brest) Newspaper, #97,
December 4, 2002
The last period of existence of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha, during which leadership was exercised by Nickolai Bambiza, gives the chance to speak about the changes affecting the staff. High quality experts were compelled to leave the national park. People from a neighbouring region were employed at the timber processing plant, while a significant part of the population of Kamenyuki village, the administrative centre of the reserve, remained unemployed. And there is another unprecedented case. Last Thursday, a civil action hearing took place in the Kamenetz district court, under chairmanship of Nickolai Andreychuk. The administration of the national park is going to evict former general director Evegeny Smoktunovich (predecessor of Nickolai Bambiza and employee of the park for more than 25 years) in legal form from the departmental apartment.
Many of Pushcha's locals, working for many years together with Mr. Smoktunovich, consider him a model of human decency. Maybe the, rare for these present times, scruples of this man, have not allowed him to build an own cottage or to buy an apartment for children in due time somewhere «close to civilization». The first departmental apartment Evegeny Smoktunovich has received was in the village of Nemerzha, situated in Svislochsky district, Grodno region. He worked in Yazvinskoe forestry at that time. The second apartment he received was in Kamenyuki village and he currently lives there. It is exactly where the administration of the park attempts to evict the Smoktunovich family from.
Evegeny Anatolevich Smoktunovich came back to Kamenyuki village in 1997. He had been appointed to the post of General Forest Warden. Consequently, he became second in rank after the director. However, he returned only for the job.
Solving of the problem concerning the new departmental apartment was delayed for some years. All this time the General Forest Warden had to commute between Kamenyuki and Nemerzha villages. The latter was the location of his home: 58 kilometers away from Kamenyuki. This went on until one day when driving back home he fell asleep (his working day was of
The serious crash quickened the solving of the departmental apartment allocation. The administration had just begun building three cottages in Kamenyuki for the park staff. As cottages were being allocated at the joint session of the trade-union committee and the administration, the matter concerned only two of them. It was decided and confirmed at the level of Property Management Department of the President, that the third cottage be granted to Mr. Smoktunovich. Mr. Smoktunovich had already been named general director of the State National Park «Belovezhskaya Pushcha» at that time. However, in August 2001, as the cottages were occupied by employees, there was another change of the park's leader.
Nickolai Bambiza has taken the management armchair. He previously worked in Pripyatski Reserve and has got a recommendation from the Property Management Department of the President as a strong economic planner. Mr. Smoktunovich, who played the role of the «general» for not even half a year, was again appointed to the post of general forest warden. In the beginning of August the new director has solemnly handed him the keys of the cottage, which Mr. Smoktunovich with his wife Anna and younger son Pavel occupied. The senior son Dimitry had recently finished his studies at the forest institute and decided to remain in Nemerzha village. On August 9th Nickolai Bambiza signed his work contract for the period of one year. Dimitry was appointed forestry foreman in Yazvinskoe forestry. Alas, the peaceful cooperation was not to be long.
A scandal concerning bark beetle infestation and clear cuttings broke: Mr. Bambiza has ordered to cut the whole forest quarters affected by the beetle. Few employees took the liberty of going against him. Mr. Smoktunovich was one of them, because he was convinced that methods, standard for timber enterprises, were not suitable for the world famous reserve. Voices were raised in support and the Pushcha was saved from clear cuttings. Literally a couple of months later a powerful hurricane tumbled down trees on a large area. There was more than enough good-quality timber for German sawmill. Enough to get on well with the processing, but the conflict was not forgotten. All those who openly showed opposition at that time were fired from the park. Mr. Smoktunovich, didn't suppose anything in regard to his situation, and would have to come under shock. Even when the young girl — lawyer of the park, hiding her eyes, informed his spouse about the decision to evict them from the departmental apartment on grounds of illegal occupation, Mr. Smoktunovich didn't take it seriously.
It was a mistake. The first one to lose a job was his wife Anna Ivanovna. She worked as forestry foreman in Yazvinskoe forestry and then in Kamenyuki as inspector of the human resources department. She was fired along with others on grounds of personnel reduction. An attempt of Mr. Smoktunovich to have an open talk with the director with the purpose of finding any job for his wife (except for the park, there are almost no other jobs in Kamenyuki) was not crowned with success either.
The Dictaphone recorder has saved that conversation. If we were to put aside all «technical» lexicon, which the park's general director used in his speech, the answer would be reduced to one main point: nobody of you will get a job from me neither now nor in the future. And soon the general forest warden felt that he was steadily «moving» towards unemployment according to the clause of the contract. On top of this Mr. Smoktunovich working without any penalty for 25 years, suddenly got two severe reprimands literally within one month. Strong belief of the locals is that only hospitalization helped him avoid the third reprimand.
However, the outcome was inevitable: in May this year, the one year work contract of Mr. Smoktunovich came to an end, and Nickolai Bambiza did not suggest extension for the next year. There was no other job for the expert who knew the Pushcha better than any another. Next was his senior son, dismissed upon the same grounds — coming to an end of the contract. It has previously been stated that contracts with specialists should not even be signed, because they are anyway compelled by present agreements to work 5 years at the enterprise. But lately there were too many problems and it wasn't possible to bring sensible reasoning to this matter. On top of all these an official notification was received informing about the administration's intention to evict the family from the departmental apartment. It happened just a day after confused Dimitry informed his mother he was unemployed. «I am a strong person, but hysterics have caught me at that moment», Anna Ivanovna admitted.
And it is no wonder. It's common sense that the family should not be evicted, the hiring contract was not violated, even if the lawyers of the reserve tried to find some violations there. According to existing legislation the eviction from the departmental apartment of a person who has worked at the enterprise for 25 years is allowed only after offering equivalent accommodation within the respective territory.
However, there is little common sense in the things that currently take place in the national park. Personal ambitions obviously win over common sense. And the matter concerns not only methods of settling disputes with the people that raised objections. Many of former experts of the Pushcha tell about real persecution and that they eventually had to urgently look for other jobs and master new professions. Some of them tried to come to terms with the park's management in order to get reemployed. The others gave up their hopes of getting back a bad job anyway.
But common sense is far less considered in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha forest which is a unique site of untouched nature. «I am really afraid to pass through the Pushcha nowadays», Evgeny Smoktunovich has admitted during the conversation with the journalist of the «Evening Brest». «For me it's terrible to see the forest being destroyed». Protection and augmentation of the natural woods have ceased to be the main goal. The other priorities — economic ones — are now the foreground.
In the present year, as the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Reserve had to confirm it was entitled to the European Diploma, a small scandal broke again. In the end, the Diploma was saved, but the administration was seriously advised to become less enamored of timber harvesting, and to pay more attention to the protection of forests.
However, since scandals became a common thing in the Pushcha over last one and half a years, the story about eviction of former director may fade on this background and does not seem outstanding.
… Well, in what regards the last week's court hearing, a decision was not yet given. The hearing was postponed until December 10th. In official terms, this period of time was given so that the parties could solve the «housing» conflict outside court. There is still no information about any attempts from one party or the other.