ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - Croatian War Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic said on Wednesday his ministry had commissioned a special study on the number of suicides among veterans due to a lack of accurate data on the subject.
ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - Croatian War Veterans' Minister Ivica
Pancic said on Wednesday his ministry had commissioned a special
study on the number of suicides among veterans due to a lack of
accurate data on the subject. #L#
Talking during parliamentary question time, Pancic called on MPs
and the public to refrain from citing what he called arbitrary data
until the study was made.
Ivica Tafra of the Croatian Bloc said more than 1,600 veterans and
members of their families had committed suicide since the end of the
Homeland War in 1995 but Pancic dismissed this, saying that by the
number of total suicides Croatia was on the European level.
The opposition also asked questions about a doctors' strike, today
in its eighth day, and criticised the government for refusing
dialogue.
The opposition was upset by Health Minister Andro Vlahusic's claim
that the average salary of Ivica Babic, the president of the
Croatian Doctors' Union, in 2001 was 14,160 kuna (1,888 euros) and
that one month he received 19,200 plus (2,560 euros) compensation
as union leader.
Those are earnings, not a salary, said Jadranka Kosor of the
Croatian Democratic Union.
Vlahusic dismissed some opposition MPs' claims that the Health
Ministry lacked social dialogue and said that one doctors' union
was blackmailing all the others.
(EUR1 = 7.5 kuna)
(hina) ha sb