ZAGREB, Aug 24 (Hina) - A disabled Croatian war veteran, Marijan Ivancic, tried to commit suicide with a hand grenade in the lobby of the Ministry of Croatian Homeland War Veterans, but after a military police officer talked to him
for almost two hours, Ivancic decided to hand over the grenade. Ivancic, (aged 35) from Daruvar, entered the Ministry building around 11 am today and jumped on a table standing in the lobby, after which he took out a grenade. Military police officers on duty managed to close the door leading into the Ministry's offices and prevent Ivancic from entering, and evacuated the ground floor, spokeswoman Andreja Pavlovic said. After a long conversation and persuading, around 1 pm Ivancic agreed to hand over the grenade to the police officer, after which he was taken to the Centre for the Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at Zagreb's Rebro hospital, Pavlovic said. Ivanci
ZAGREB, Aug 24 (Hina) - A disabled Croatian war veteran, Marijan
Ivancic, tried to commit suicide with a hand grenade in the lobby of
the Ministry of Croatian Homeland War Veterans, but after a
military police officer talked to him for almost two hours, Ivancic
decided to hand over the grenade.
Ivancic, (aged 35) from Daruvar, entered the Ministry building
around 11 am today and jumped on a table standing in the lobby, after
which he took out a grenade. Military police officers on duty
managed to close the door leading into the Ministry's offices and
prevent Ivancic from entering, and evacuated the ground floor,
spokeswoman Andreja Pavlovic said.
After a long conversation and persuading, around 1 pm Ivancic
agreed to hand over the grenade to the police officer, after which
he was taken to the Centre for the Treatment of Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder at Zagreb's Rebro hospital, Pavlovic said.
Ivancic is a disabled war veteran with the 40% disability status,
caused by his wounding and post traumatic stress syndrome, for
which he receives a monthly allowance of 500 kuna. As he is
unemployed, Ivancic intended to meet employment requirements
through retraining. However, the Defence Ministry's commission for
the revision of disability status refused to grant him retraining
and decided that he was a 100% invalid who had to continue
psychiatric treatment.
Apart from his frustration that this prevented him to find any job,
Ivancic claims he was prompted to his suicide attempt by the
problems of his fellow Homeland War volunteers. Some of them have
committed suicide because they failed to solve their cases before
pension-disability and health commissions and their standard of
living was so poor they could not satisfy their basic needs.
The Veterans' Ministry said in a statement it was encountering war
veterans on a daily basis, especially those suffering from post
traumatic stress syndrome, who are turning to the Ministry to help
them reintegrate socially through employment or retraining.
The Ministry, however, cannot help them because it is not competent
for employment and retraining problems, but only for the status of
disabled war veterans, on the basis of which disabled war veterans
are granted the right to disability allowance and their housing
problems are possibly solved, the statement read.
(hina) rml