The authorities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity are now looking for ways how not to solve the veterans’ demands, the FBiH entity Vice President told N1.
According to Milan Dunovic, the veterans’ issue reflected in their three demands: the publication of the single veterans’ registry, abolition of the financing of veterans’ associations and the right to veterans’ allowance has been present for a long time, but their most significant request is the publication of the single veterans’ registry.
Veterans from the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) and the Croat Defence Council (HVO), once waging war on opposite sides, joined forces in their demands and staged a number of protests across the country, blocking major highways and protesting in front of the FBiH Parliament building.
The FBiH Prime Minister Fadil Novalic announced the formation of a commission which would deal with the harmonisation of two different versions of the Law on the Rights of Veterans adopted by the FBiH Government and the FBiH Parliament.
Dunovic told N1 that this is yet another way how not to solve the veterans’ demands.
“They are dealing with a number of 500,000 veterans. It is only logical to conclude that something’s wrong here,” Dunovic stressed and noted his belief that the strongest Bosniak party, the Democratic Action Party, and the main Croat party, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) must have infiltrated their own party members into this number of 500,000.
He confirmed that the money for the veterans’ allowance does exist, but stressed that the single veterans register of the people who were active combatants must be published and their names must not be a secret.
“We’ve come to a phase where no one wants to talk about the veterans’ issues any more,” Dunovic stressed and said he believes no solution will be found for this issue.
“The SDA, HDZ BiH and the Alliance for Better Future (SBB) – the ruling majority in the FBiH – won’t solve this problem because they can’t,” he said, adding that this would be a “move against 200,000 of their voters.”
