Public call for one-time financial assistance, veterans demand permanent solutions

SARAJevo, (Patria) - A public call for submitting applications for one-time financial assistance to resolve the status issues of combatants and their family members has been published in the “Official Gazette of FBiH” and on the website of the Federal Ministry for Affairs of Veterans and Disabled of the Defense-Liberation War.

All applicants have a deadline of 15 days from the date of publication to collect documentation and submit applications according to the aforementioned call.

The call was published within the Program for the expenditure of funds with criteria for the distribution of funds for resolving the status issues of combatants and their family members, which allocated the amount of 9,000,000 KM for these purposes.

This Program is the result of the Agreement between the Government of the Federation of BiH and veterans' organizations, as well as the commitment of the Government of FBiH not to reduce the rights and funds for the veteran population, it was announced from the Federal Ministry for Affairs of Veterans and Disabled of the Defense-Liberation War.

Demobilized combatants continue to demand their rights in an improvised camp next to the former building of the Government of FBiH.

Even before the constitutive session of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of FBiH on November 27, a group of demobilized combatants gathered in front of the Parliament building.

They reiterated their demands for the publication of the combatants' registry, the establishment of a combatant's allowance for unemployed combatants and those without any income amounting to 326 KM, and the cessation of funding for numerous veterans' associations.

A group of combatants is still staying in tents in front of the former building of the Government of FBiH in Alipašina Street, although the Government of FBiH has been located in the Energoinvest building in Pofalići for months.

Demobilized combatants state that they will not give up on their demands and that someone will have to fulfill them. Demobilized combatants have organized protests on several occasions, but their demands have not been met to date.

They point out that numerous members of the Army of RBiH are ill and without income, and that they do not have a life worthy of a human being.