Residents of South Ossetia state that they received no compensation

Many residents of South Ossetia complain that they received no compensations, due to them under the decision made after Russia had recognized independence of South Ossetia. The compensations were intended to the victims of the warfare in August 2008. Many of those who received the money assure that it was enough to reimburse only a small part of damage.

The procedure for receiving compensations launched a year ago demanded from residents to get registered at the passport office of Tskhinvali, where the databank of victims was compiled. The volume of monetary compensation depends on the size of the family. The minimum volume of compensation for lost housing made 20,000 roubles. Families of four and more persons received 50,000 roubles each. Along with townspeople, compensations were paid out also to residents of rural areas.

"Compensations of the property lost during the Georgian aggression were paid out to the residents of the villages located in the aggression zone," Valery Bibilov, deputy head of the administration of the Tskhinvali District, South Ossetia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Many of those who have already received compensations assure that they were too small to reimburse the damage and assert that the sums should be many times as that.

"For me 40,000 roubles (about 1350 US dollars, - note of the editor) is a rather big sum. In usual, not wartime conditions, we should live on it for a long time; but after the war, when my house, all the furniture and household utensils were destroyed, this sum loses its value. I think it unfair that these compensations were paid out to those who completely lost their property and those who managed to preserve both the house and their savings," said Zamira.

Now, South Ossetia sees the second stage of receiving compensations - payments of 1000 roubles to the working population and 3000 roubles to pensioners. These payments were suspended many times, but finally finds were found and paid out.

With account of the fact that in the post-war republic the floor salary makes 1300 roubles (about 45 US dollars, - note of the editor), for many residents of South Ossetia, as they say, the sum of 1000 roubles matters. For example, a family of five persons can modestly live on five thousand for one month.

However, many people have not received even these compensations - for different reasons. Not all had time to get registered: someone - because of illness, someone - because of remoteness of his or her residence. Some people assert that they got registered, but their names then disappeared from the databank.

Those who remained without compensations, decided to apply about this "misunderstanding" to the top management. In reply to numerous applications, a new working group was set up to make the analysis of those who remained without compensations. Merab Zaseev, adviser of the President of South Ossetia for home policy, is the head of the working group.

Mr Zaseev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that leaders of South Ossetia are concerned that many citizens remained without compensations.

"For five days three thousand persons came with their applications. The situation is not clear, and a question arises - where is the money allocated for compensations? I don't know what to tell these people. Earlier it was decided to make additional lists and somehow help these people. But when the flow of people would not diminish, it's not clear what to do. Parents came to me of children-invalids, who failed to get registered because they were away on treatment, or someone had an expired passport, or didn't have such at all, and plenty of other reasons," said Mr Zaseev.

"I don't know, how this problem will be addressed, but we don't plan to compile any additional lists on compensations," he added.

There are also those who deliberately refused to get registered in compensation lists finding the compensation sums humiliating for their dignity.

Military serviceman Marat Tedeev said that right for these reasons he had deliberately ignored registration in the lists. "I knowingly ignore the lists for compensation of 1000 roubles," he said. "I passed the war, and here I have to line up with old women for getting 1/7 of salary. I think it to unworthy for a Caucasian man."