SARAJEVO, April 2 (Hina) - The reduction of the army of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim federation could be completed by the end of the month, provided the entity's parliament on Wednesday adopted a government motion for giving monetary
compensation to all who have to be laid off from active military service.
SARAJEVO, April 2 (Hina) - The reduction of the army of Bosnia's
Croat-Muslim federation could be completed by the end of the month,
provided the entity's parliament on Wednesday adopted a government
motion for giving monetary compensation to all who have to be laid
off from active military service. #L#
Everything depends on the federal parliament, which has to grant
the government permission to incur a debt with commercial banks to
secure 100 million convertible marks for severance wages, federal
Defence Minister Mijo Anic told reporters on Tuesday.
"If parliament does that, we shall complete this job during April,"
said Anic.
The federation's government passed a decision to reduce the
entity's army from 23,500 to 13,000 employees, and securing 10,000
convertible marks to everyone who would be laid off.
Thus far, 8,600 military employees have volunteered for layoff.
There will be many more as they are aware the army has to be reduced,
commander Atif Dudakovic told the same press conference.
The Muslim-Croat ratio in the federation's army will remain the
same, 2.3:1.
The army of the other Bosnian entity, Republika Srpska, has to
reduce its staff to 6,600.
(hina) ha sb