A a retired soldier is suing Chechen rebels for disabling injuries he suffered, the Moscow Times reported Monday.
Gennady Uminsky told the newspaper fighters loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev trapped his unit in a building for three weeks while patrolling the Chechen capital. Only 50 of the 200 soldiers in the unit survived their three week siege. And last week, Uminsky filed suit against the rebel Chechen government for damages in an Oryol district court.
"I know Basayev will laugh when he learns about this, and I will laugh with him over this idiocy," Uminsky, 38, told the Moscow Times by telephone from his hometown of Oryol.
Only 50 of the 200 troops in Uminsky's unit survived the three-week siege in August 1996. Uminsky was hospitalized in shellshock and with grenade shrapnel in both legs, and he spent a year recovering in various hospitals.
All he was entitled to was a monthly state pension of 3,000 rubles or $107.
Uminsky filed suit against the Defense Ministry in 2002. After two years of deliberation, the Oryol district court ruled that the ministry should compensate him with a lump sum of almost 1 million rubles ($34,000) and a monthly pension of $900.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
