Families of Dead and Wounded Soldiers in the August War Were Given Financial Aid on Political Grounds

The family of 21-year old Ioseb Kozashvili, who was wounded during the Russian-Georgian war on August 9, 2008, requests for help. Lali Tsiklauri, mother of the wounded soldier, said that it was not clear to her on what grounds the government of Dedoplistsqaro helped the families of dead and wounded soldiers.

“I read in the newspaper that the government gave financial aid to the families of dead and wounded soldiers. Nobody gave us and other families anything”, said Lali Tsiklauri.

The Kakheti News Center found out that the local self-government institutions gave financial aid to the families of dead and wounded soldiers in the August war from the Municipality budget on political grounds. According to one of the employees of the Social Service of the Dedoplistsqaro local government, s/he had to gather information about the families who were entitled to aid. “They wanted to know if there was any family who supported the government. I checked this information with the village governor and then showed it to the authorities”, said the employee of the Social Aid Service.

Petre Kiknadze, deputy of the governor, denies that aid is only given to families of dead and wounded soldiers of the August war on political grounds. “All families of dead soldiers were given aid. As for wounded soldiers, we did not give financial aid to them”, - stated Petre Kiknadze.

Source: Kakheti News Center