PARLIAMENT COUNCIL FOR WAR VETERANS DISCUSSES PROBLEMS OF VICTIMS OF WAR

OF WAR ZAGREB, Jan 9 (Hina) - The Croatian Parliament Council for War Veterans discussed problems of care for war victims at today's session. The Council's President Janko Bobetko stressed that different psycho-social problems as well as problems with employment would emerge once the demobilization of 40,000 men of military age was completed. #L# According to data from the Croatian Defence Ministry, 29,273 persons had been affected by the war. Out of those 29,273, 6,843 persons had been killed, 21,222 had been wounded, 281 had been imprisoned and 972 persons had gone missing. The president of the Association of Croatian Veterans of Homeland War, Major General Djuro Decak spoke about some worrying data, which are results of a research the Association had carried out on a sample of 800 veterans of the Homeland war from the Zagreb County area. Twenty percent of the respondents had no job, 305 said that their financial situation had worsened after the demobilization, Decak said. He warned of the problem of suicide, adding that four veterans had committed suicide in Zagreb on New Year's night. Decak also said that 23% of the participants in the Homeland war had difficulties in communication and in relations with their families after their return from the front. Their traumas had also reflected on their children, Decak said. The head of the Defence Ministry Department for Care, Brigadier Ante Vicuna, said that the problem of flats for war veterans was the biggest problem of the department. The vice president of the Council for War Veterans, Mladen Jurkovic, proposed that a housing fund for war veterans be established, and that it be partly financed from the state budget. The problem of care for the victims of war was a national problem, Parliament representative Damir Kajin said. (hina) rm mm 091950 MET jan 96