ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina) - Croatian War Veterans Minister Ivica Pancic said at the end of Thursday's parliamentary debate on a bill on the rights of war veterans all open issues addressed by parliamentary deputies during the debate
could be discussed more and no solution the bill offered was final. Pancic said this after several MPs criticised a regulation saying the family of the soldier who committed suicide would be granted rights according to the law on war veterans only if suicide was committed until July 1997. MPs believe such families should be granted rights automatically as post-traumatic stress disorder can appear a decade after the trauma was experienced. The minister called on the deputies to refrain from making a media case of this issue, because "it is not the final solution and everything can be changed through dialogue." The key issue is the attitude of the public and society towards Croatian sold
ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina) - Croatian War Veterans Minister Ivica
Pancic said at the end of Thursday's parliamentary debate on a bill
on the rights of war veterans all open issues addressed by
parliamentary deputies during the debate could be discussed more
and no solution the bill offered was final.
Pancic said this after several MPs criticised a regulation saying
the family of the soldier who committed suicide would be granted
rights according to the law on war veterans only if suicide was
committed until July 1997.
MPs believe such families should be granted rights automatically as
post-traumatic stress disorder can appear a decade after the trauma
was experienced.
The minister called on the deputies to refrain from making a media
case of this issue, because "it is not the final solution and
everything can be changed through dialogue."
The key issue is the attitude of the public and society towards
Croatian soldiers, Pancic said, reiterating the need to integrate
soldiers into society instead of treating them as social cases.
The bill was supported by deputies from the ruling coalition,
whereas the Opposition was against, claiming the bill was being
adopted exclusively for the sake of budgetary savings.
The bill, which was discussed today in the first reading, will be
voted on tomorrow.
Answering to criticisms by opposition MPs during the debate, Pancic
said claims that disabled war veterans accounted for most
redundancies at the Veterans' Ministry were false. Criteria for
employment with the Ministry are exclusively competence and
respect for the law, Pancic said, announcing again the prosecution
of employees who violated the law.
Withdrawn from parliamentary procedure was a proposal by some MPs
on founding a commission of inquiry to probe into the Zagreb Airport
company due to the government's failure to submit to the parliament
a report on the findings of an audit into the company's business
operations in the last six years.
The government has been given a deadline until October 30 to submit
the report.
(hina) rml