HDZ BiH one step away from the goal, House of Peoples adopts amendments on revision of veterans' benefits

The House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament adopted amendments to the proposal for amendments to the law on conducting legality control of the exercise of rights in the area of veterans' protection. These amendments were proposed by the Croat Club.

This means that all those who were previously removed from the right to use veterans' benefits by the revision could seek their rights before cantonal courts, instead of before the Constitutional Court of FBiH, as was the case until now. For these amendments to the law to enter into force, they must still be confirmed by the House of Representatives.

Zukan Helez, the former federal minister for veterans' affairs, abolished the right to a monthly veterans' disability benefit for several thousand people a little over two years ago, because they could not prove that their income was legal.

These are former military officials, mostly members of the HVO, who retired under favorable conditions, then disabled persons who received war disability benefits even though they could not prove they were war military invalids, and recipients of war decorations, for whom the Ministry assessed that their decorations had no credibility.

After they were removed from veterans' disability rights, appeals followed to the Constitutional Court of FBiH. HDZ BiH then requested that the cases be transferred to cantonal courts.

Helez claimed that the goal of HDZ BiH is to transfer these cases to lower courts, "because this party has influence over them, especially in cantons where HDZ BiH holds power."

The SDA initially rejected the HDZ proposal, but after Dragan Čović conditioned the survival of the coalition on transferring these cases from the Constitutional Court of FBiH to cantonal courts, the SDA relented.