ZAGREB, March 24 (Hina) - Croatia's parliament resumed its session on Wednesday with a debate on government-sponsored amendments to the law on Croatian Homeland Defence War Veterans which would annul the reviews of the status of
disabled war veterans.
ZAGREB, March 24 (Hina) - Croatia's parliament resumed its session on
Wednesday with a debate on government-sponsored amendments to the law
on Croatian Homeland Defence War Veterans which would annul the
reviews of the status of disabled war veterans.#L#
The State Secretary in the War Veterans Affairs' Ministry, Tomislav
Ivic, said the status of some disabled war veterans should have been
reviewed in other ways, and that the entire process was unnecessary,
causing only a feeling of uncertainty among veterans, as a majority of
them acquired the status of disabled war veterans regularly.
Therefore, the government proposes the annulment of the
above-mentioned provisions while all disputed cases would be solved by
other legal instruments, Ivic said.
A total of 105 million kuna would be allocated for this purpose from
the national budget.
Ivic told the parliament that so far, 4,411 cases had been reviewed,
and in 1,764 cases (40 percent) it was established that veterans had
a lower degree of disability than it had been previously determined or
that some of them were not entitled to this status at all.
Of 1,968 applications for disability allowance filed by families, 527
cases or 27 percent were denied this benefit. Of 324 cases of
disability allowance to families whose members went missing in the
war, 165, or 51 percent, actually were not entitled to this, Ivic
said.
The bill for the discontinuation of the review of the cases of
disabled war veterans divided parliamentary parties during a debate.
The parliamentary majority, namely the clubs of the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) and of the Social Liberals and the Democratic
Centre (HSLS/DC) said the review caused more damage to veterans and
their families and discredited the dignity of the Homeland Defence
War. They also accused the former minister of war veterans' affairs,
Ivica Pancic, of launching campaigns against war veterans.
Ivica Pancic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) refuted the
accusations, adding that the HDZ government would like to halt the
reviews despite that fact that some of the disabled war veterans
obtained this status unlawfully. He said that the intention of the
previous coalition government was to separate false disabled war
veterans from those who deserved this status with the aim of
protecting war veterans and war invalids.
Libra MP Jozo Rados said the discontinuation of the reviews was a
politically-motivated decision of the incumbent government in a bid to
score political points.
Zdenko Haramija of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) agreed with him,
adding that the HSS would ask the Constitutional Court to assess
whether the government-sponsored bill was in compliance with the
Constitution given that "it would legalise something which was
obtained illegally".
(Hina) ms