Federal pensioners in RS still haven't received their pensions: Will they steal our July benefits?

Discrimination against pensioners in RS who receive pensions from the Federation of BiH continues, writes the Patria news agency. July pensions have not been paid as of today - August 24, 2015.

Ibrahim Halilović says he earned his pension as a journalist for TV Sarajevo - meaning he exercises his pension rights, including the right to a pension, in the Federation - and as a returnee he receives it at a bank in RS.

- All those who have returned or occasionally return to RS are discriminated against in every possible way by Dodik's authorities, and their lives are often endangered, not to mention other civil rights. They are second-class citizens. Such discriminated pensioners are further humiliated by the federal authorities, i.e., the PIO Fund, which denies them timely pensions; distribution of pensions in the Federation began almost three weeks ago, but pensioners from the Federation living in RS have not received them even today – says Halilović.

He further states that at the beginning of the month, pensioners received numerous bills with short payment deadlines, noting that high interest will be charged on unpaid bills, making small pensions even more meager.

- I wrote to the PIO Fund in Sarajevo seven days ago, asking for an explanation, but that wouldn't be the PIO Fund if it deigned to give any response. The PIO Fund distributes pensions in the Federation around the tenth of the month because it still fears mass protests. There are fewer federal pensioners in RS, and they would hardly be able to organize and protest en masse against this discrimination, which the PIO Fund surely counts on.

In all likelihood, the PIO Fund's intention is to steal one monthly pension. To steal the July one, they need less than a week, which they will justify by a lack of funds in the fund... No one will take these pensioners under their protection, who honestly earned their pensions - which the PIO Fund surely counts on.

Displaced persons - returnees are a population that no one has counted on or cared about for a long time. That is yet another reason to abolish the illegal, genocidal, and discriminatory system and establish the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina – added Halilović.