Demobilised Soldiers Tell Bukvarević: No Negotiators, You Have Until Wednesday to Come to the Camp

Demobilised soldiers who have been demanding their rights in front of the building of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo for two months have suspended their started hunger strike due to serious health conditions, but have also announced a new one on Thursday if Minister for Veterans' Affairs Salko Bukvarević does not address them by Wednesday at 10 PM, reports the Patria agency.

Minister for Veterans' Affairs Salko Bukvarević called on the soldiers on Monday to appoint their representatives and meet with him, but today a response arrived clearly stating that “there is no negotiating team, because the soldiers are aware that negotiators enter the Government and then disappear.”

- For the hundredth time, we tell you that there are no negotiations or negotiators from the Camp with the Government, because experience tells us that all negotiators who entered the Government left satisfied and are not in the camp today or anywhere else. We know that you only take care of the “negotiators.” We demand that you address us in the Camp no later than Wednesday at 10 PM. Otherwise, the hunger strike continues from Thursday – the letter states.

We remind you, the soldiers are demanding, among other things, the adoption of a unified registry of Army of BiH soldiers and its public release, a veteran supplement of at least 326 KM, the cessation of funding for all veteran associations, and free medical treatment. 

The Government does not want to discuss this topic, claiming that additional expenses for this category would lead the Federation to bankruptcy. However, no one from the Government of FBiH is yet willing to explain why the publication of the registry is not being pursued more decisively and how it has been possible to work without it until now.