PANCIC: A HUGE NUMBER OF WAR VETERANS ARE UNEMPLOYED

ZAGREB, Nov 29 (Hina) - There are currently about 33,000 demobilised war veterans on the dole, according to figures released by the Croatian Homeland War Veterans' Ministry, while the unofficial figures go to the number of 50,000 unemployed veterans, Minister in charge of war veterans, Ivica Pancic told a news conference on Wednesday. Almost 90 percent of jobless veterans are between 25 and 49 years old with very poor education. Therefor, the ministry would like to make it possible for veterans to be retrained for new jobs instead of sending them into retirement. Minister Pancic announced that his ministry together with the Education Ministry would draw up concrete projects for retraining veterans. These projects, which would be considerably cheaper than usual programmes, should be finished by the spring 2001. His ministry also wants to retain the current jobs, particularly in public companies which are to be restructured soon, and to ensure that there are legal regulations stimulating employers to give jobs to war veterans, Pancic told a news conference. He assessed that this ministry had so far been mostly engaged in activities about the payment of permanent rights to its users, but in the future it should invest more efforts to tackle concrete problems. "We must dispel some stereotypes (about high pensions granted to veterans) as most veterans, especially those who have lower degrees of disability, are persons dependent on social welfare," Pancic explained. "The public has got a wrong impression about high amount of veterans' pensions, but only veterans with a high degree of disability have good pensions although there have been irregularities in such cases as well," Pancic added. The minister informed that a new draft law on veterans' rights should be in the first reading in parliamentary procedure next January. Pancic announced his visit to France for next week where he would attend the World Veterans Federation's meeting. (hina) jn ms