Blocking the roads and institutions that are used by citizens is not justified and nobody has right to create chaos, that is not what veterans want, said Sarajevo Canton Minister for Veterans' Affairs Muharem Fiso, commenting the recent protest of war veterans in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
“We will block the parliament, we will block the government like in all normal world countries. Nobody has the right to create chaos, the veterans don't want that. Various governments with their coalition partners were not capable of solving this problem,” the minister told N1.
Veterans staged a protest last week during the session of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity's House of Peoples (HoP), exerting pressure on the MPs and demanding their requests – publication of the single veterans’ registry, veterans’ allowance and the abolition of the financing of the veterans’ association – to be adopted. Their demands were met.
The FBiH HoP adopted the Draft Law on the Rights of Veterans and Members of their Families in the form adopted by the FBiH Government, while the FBiH House of Representatives previously adopted a different version whose amendments were approved neither by the HoP nor the Government. A commission to harmonize the text of the two versions met on Monday and finalized its work. The two chambers are now expected to meet to approve the final version of the law.
According to Fiso, political parties are only pretending to be friends with the veterans but veterans see through that.
“There is a little time to do the things the way they should be done. New authorities will be formed as of January 1, 2019, and everything will change. I think it's a bit late,” he added.
As for the issue of financing of the war veterans’ association, the minister said it is not a secret that BAM 754,000 (EUR 386.66) is earmarked for ten associations but that they all justified their projects.
(EUR 1 = BAM 1.95)
