440 cases of violation of compensation payments to victims of Chechnya conflict considered in Stavropol Territory

During the period from 2000 to 2005, the courts of Stavropol Territory have considered 440 civil cases connected with compensation for damage to persons who suffered as a result of crisis in Chechnya.

128 plaintiffs residing at present on the Stavropol Territory applied to court for exacting a lump-sum allowance for wounds and a lump-sum allowance to the families of people killed in Chechnya. They founded their claims on the RF President's Decree No 898 of September 5, 1995 "On additional compensation payments to persons who suffered as a result of crisis settlement in the Republic of Chechnya." In accordance with the Decree, the allowance for wounds is 20 minimum wages, or 2,000 roubles, while the allowance to the families of those killed is 200 minimum wages, or 20,000 roubles.

The procedure of paying the compensation payments has been worked out and approved by the first deputy-chair of the RF Government. However, the document failed to be registered at the RF Ministry of Justice, therefore, Chechnya residents have to get their compensation through court. The Stavropol courts were guided by the provisions of the above procedure.

The RF Ministry of Finance, the RF Federal Treasury Directorate, the Stavropol Territory Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, the Stavropol Territory Federal Treasury Directorate, and the Stavropol Territory Ministry of Finance represented by the Stavropol Territory Treasury acted as defendants on this category of cases. The Stavropol Territory court information letter runs that the jurisdiction of cases on allowance payment was determined by the location of the defendant, i.e., the Stavropol Territory Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population. The claims were granted and the said amounts were exacted from the RF Ministry of Finance at the cost of the state budget. Death certificates, specifying its cause, witness testimonies, medical documents confirming wounds, and court rulings establishing the fact of death were accepted as evidence.

The Stavropol courts ambiguously treated both jurisdiction of this category cases and various aspects of the cases. Cases were considered both by district courts and by magistrates. In some of the cases the court, while exacting the lump-sum allowance, only made references to the family relations of the plaintiffs and the persons killed. In some instances, the RF Ministry of Finance disputed the right to apply to court of some individuals who, in the defendant's opinion, were not family members of the person killed.

For instance, in the case of I. Borodatskaya, an internally displaced person, the Soviet district court refused to grant her claim for a lump-sum allowance in the amount of 20,000 roubles due to the death of her parents on the basis of the fact that, at the moment of their death, the plaintiff had already been of age and was not disabled. Other courts, on the other hand, did not take into account such evidence.

Despite the fact that most law suits were granted, execution of the court rulings to pay the allowances for wounds and to families of those killed in Chechnya raises great problems. The plaintiffs, and virtually all of them are IDPs, are unable to get the money sometimes for several years. The Stavropol Territory "Solidarity" association of displaced persons' organizations, the employees of which assist people in filing law suits and represent plaintiffs' interests in court, reports that, in order to get such small amounts one had to carry on an extensive correspondence with the Russian Ministry of Finances and the Stavropol Territory Federal Treasury Directorate, which requires a lot of effort, time and resources. Being aware of this, many people who were wounded as a result of the crisis settlement in the Chechen Republic cancel their claims and do not apply to court. Indeed, out of the said 128 cases, only 20 claims were related to the allowance for wounds.