Govt Plans to Increase Compensation for Families of Fallen Soldiers

Families of soldiers killed in combat will receive GEL 100,000 (about USD 60,300) instead of current GEL 15,000 (about USD 9,050), according to planned legislative amendments, Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said on June 13.

The timing of Alasania’s announcement, made in a video address, coincides with burial of seven Georgian soldiers on Thursday who were killed in a truck bomb attack on their base in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on June 6. A separate similar attack in Helmand killed three Georgian servicemen on May 13. Total of twenty nine Georgian troops died and at least 120 were wounded in ISAF mission.

In addition, according to the Defense Minister, families of all those soldiers, who died as a result of service during the armed conflicts for Georgia’s territorial integrity, which also includes the conflicts of early 1990s, as well as families of those soldiers who died while performing duty in international missions, will receive monthly pension of GEL 1,000 (about USD 610). This new scheme, Alasania said, would be introduced in two stages from 2014 and 2015.

In December, 2012 the government announced about increase of salaries of those soldiers who serve in Afghanistan.

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