Former members of Bosnia's Croatian Defence Council (HVO) are still outside the system which other war veterans are part of, while pensioners who lived and worked abroad have to scrape a living with pensions of 200-300 kuna, ZUNH heard at its annual Christmas meeting.
Association president Tomo Aracic said that unless the situation changed, formerly war-stricken areas might become depopulated once again.
He said settlers were interested in buying state-owned houses which the State Real Estate Agency purchased in those areas, but were faced with administrative procedures which took months, even years, while houses remained vacant and settlers had nowhere to live.
(EUR1 = 7.35 kuna)