KOSOR MEETS WORLD VETERANS FEDERATION'S REPRESENTATIVES

ZAGREB, Oct 19 (Hina) - A World Veterans Federation delegation meeting a Croatian parliament deputy speaker, Jadranka Kosor, in Zagreb on Sunday, expressed satisfaction with the fact that the first international conference on psychosocial war consequences would be held in Croatia in 1998, and invited Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to open this event scheduled for next April in Dubrovnik. WVF officials welcomed the admission of the Croatian Homeland War Veterans Association to the WVF. Asking Kosor to relay the WVF wish to President Tudjman regarding the opening of the Dubrovnik conference, the Federation's Secretary-General Serge Wourgaft proposed that the Dubrovnik conference put the emphasis on the human rights issues. The connection between the psycho-social war consequences and human rights is evident as the people suffering from the psychosocial disorder are primarily the victims of human rights violations, Wourgaft said. He invited Kosor to the Dubrovnik meeting, and reiterated his pleasure with the fact that it would be held in Croatia which gained bitter experience from Homeland War. The Federation's President Bjorn Egge said he had learned of effects of the negative propaganda directed against Croatia, and during the Zagreb talks he congratulated Croatia on its joining of the human rights convention. He voiced satisfaction with the human rights situation in the country. According to him, the task of the World Veterans Federation that brings together 27 million war veterans from 74 countries is to help disabled veterans to integrate into the post-war society and find jobs as well as to offer them other kinds of help. The ultimate objective of the federation is the ultimate reconciliation so that new wars and conflicts be avoided. Egge announced that the Croatian Homeland War Veterans Association would become a full member of the WVF at its forthcoming general assembly to be held in Seoul in three weeks. He commended the good and arduous work of the Croatian association. Jadranka Kosor said that Croatia cared particularly for Homeland War veterans, and told the delegation that a year ago the Parliament adopted a law on the rights of war veterans and their families. She added that the government was cooperating very closely with the association, and attaching special attention to psycho- social assistance to those veterans. A member of the WVF delegation, Phillipe H. Dickson, proposed that following other countries' experience, Croatia should transfer the care for veterans from the jurisdiction of the defence ministry to other independent organisations. He explained that independence of organisations in charge of war veterans was necessary for solution of their problems. Kosor said that Croatia country had made certain steps in that direction preparing to establish a new ministry which would care for disabled veterans and their families. (hina) mš 191504 MET oct 97