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Restoration of Disability Benefits Demanded

February 21, 2008

Nana Phazhava, Zugdidi

He is now demanding that the Georgia government reclassify him as severely handicapped and provide him with a regular pension as what he was provided for a period of five years. He also wants the officers of the special unit belonging to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs who busted into his house and wounded him during one of their operation in Zugdidi back on February 4 2004 be held legally responsible and punished. 

Thirty-eight-year-old Eldar Tsaguria took part in the hostilities in 1992-1993 in Abkhazia. He was the commander of the Transport Unit # 23 and since 1996 he involved so-called guerrilla operations and became an officer in the Military Unit # 2 of the anti-terrorist special operations under the anti-terrorist center within the Ministry of State Security.

On September 28 1996 Eldar Tsaguria was wounded in the abdomen during a special operation in the village of Gudava. He retells, “I was left badly wounded; my colleagues were shot down on both sides of me. They were murdered. I tried to find my way out of the forest for three days. Finally, I was discovered as I lay bleeding to death.

Finally, on the fourth day following the incident, I found and taken to Zugdidi Central Hospital for medical treatment. Seven meters of my intestines were removed during a complicated operation. In spite of all efforts, and on the same day of the operation, it was necessary to airlift me to the Kutaisi Hospital. My life was saved as a result.”

After a long treatment in 2001 Eldar Tsaguria was granted with pension of 240 GEL for next five years. His life was again in danger on February 4 2004, when he was severely wounded in his house during was then described as an anti-guerrilla operation that was carried out by the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Eldar Tsaguria: “There were nearly 20 armed soldiers of the special unit that broke into my house. It came suddenly and they short me immediately in the foot; I suffered three bullet wounds. Only when I explained to them that I was an officer of the Security Ministry they realized their mistake and started apologizing.  They then took me to Zugdidi Central hospital by car…the special unit soldiers could not find any weapon during the search but instead they planted two grenades to frame me. However, they later discovered my automatic weapon. They did not show mercy my wife and two children. My four-year-old daughter was so much stressed by the incident that her eye sight has been damaged.”

Eldar Tsaguria spent one day in the hospital. After doctors decided to amputate his leg, the victim refused to be operated on and tried to maintain his leg at Khobi District Hospital with the doctor Malkhaz Mikhelashvili. Tsaguria was made three serious operations on. Afterwards he was twice operated in Ghudushauri National Medical Center in Tbilisi. He spent two years bed-ridden. Consequently he could not arrive in Zugdudu to be examined by medical commission to confirm his pension status. On November 27 2006 the pension was cut off.

Eldar Tsaguria managed to be examined by medical commission in May of 2007 and he was granted with a weaker status of disability. Now he was only to receive pension of 84 GEL than compared to what he had before. Tsaguria protested the decision and petitioned Lado Chipashvili, former Georgian Minister of Labor, Health and Social Welfare. Since the status was granted to him based on his leg wound, Tsaguria requested the Minister to issue both the unpaid pension and to restore his former disability status and provide arrears.

On June 15 2007 Eldar Tsaguria appealed to Zugdidi District Prosecutor, Koka Arnania and requested to arrest those law enforcers who had been responsible for shooting him. Tsaguria: “Zugdidi Prosecutor’s Office launched criminal case # 8304018 against the policemen who disabled me because of their professional negligence. I do not have information at this time about the investigation. However, one thing is certain, nobody has been punished. I am still waiting for justice to be served.”

Representatives of the Zugdidi Policlinics for Abkhazian IDPs connect the deprivation the status of the disability from Eldar Tsaguria to amendments recently introduced to the rules for granting one with a disability status.

Ketevan Kvaratskhelia, director of the policlinics explains: “The diseases that are listed do not enable us to maintain the former status of disability for Eldar Tsaguria. The diagnosis about their being a pin or a replacement joint in his leg is considered as a minor disability.”

As for Eldar Tsaguria’s request on restoring his old status and pension, political representatives stated that they do not have the authority to grant people with such a status.  Kvaratskhelia explained that the reason for ceasing the pension was the fact that he wasn’t available to be examined by the medical commission. However, they hope that the amendments to the law which will be introduced in March of 2008 and as a result there will be improvements made in the situation for patients with similar diseases or physical ailments.

Eldar Tsaguria:  “I consider that the arguments of the policlinic doctors are groundless. I had provided them with a special certificate that was provided by the Ghudushauri National Medical Center, which stated that on October 25 2006 I was operated upon and I had been treated at the hospital until November 10. As a result of my injuries, I was bed-ridden and had to stay at home until December 31. Despite that all my health complications I am not considered by definition as being seriously disabled.”

Eldar Tsaguria seeks to protect his rights at the court. He also demands that his former disability status be restored and that he be provided financial reimbursement for his moral and material damage from the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
 

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