MARKOVIĆ: WELCOMING EFFORTS TO SYSTEMATICALLY IMPROVE VETERAN CATEGORIES’ STATUS

ZVORNIK, DECEMBER 7 /SRNA/ – The announced systemic measures to improve the status of veteran categories and raise their monthly income will be of great importance and represent a step forward in helping them, Milivoje Marković, the head of the Zvornik Organisation of Families of Fallen and Captured Soldiers and Missing Civilians, told SRNA.

Marković said that, considering the overall challenges faced by the veteran population, the announced increase in income is not large, but it shows a genuine intention to help this group as much as possible within the limits of Republika Srpska’s budget. “We welcome the efforts of Republika Srpska to systematically resolve the status of the veteran population. This is a clear signal that the competent institutions of Republika Srpska are taking care of the resources that can be directed toward veterans,” Marković emphasized. He believes that Republika Srpska carefully monitors every BAM spent to ensure transparency, including funds for the veteran population, while, in contrast, money is being wasted in the unconstitutional Court of BiH, to which Republika Srpska also contributes financially. “The BiH Court president, who was suspended in December 2023, still receives a presidential salary of more than BAM 5,000. Although legal proceedings are ongoing against him, he has not been removed from his position, nor has a disciplinary procedure for dismissal been initiated, which is absurd,” Marković said. According to him, while solutions are being desperately sought on one side to raise someone’s income by just a few percent, on the other side, funds are wasted on non-work, specifically in the Court of BiH - yet another example of BiH being country impossible that serves no one. Marković said that around 70 children of fallen soldiers from the area are still seeking employment, and that the local organisation, in cooperation with employers, companies, and institutions founded by the city of Zvornik, is working to secure jobs for them. The head of the Zvornik City War Veterans Organisation, Milivoje Todorović, expressed hope that veterans will become a constitutional category, rather than a non-governmental organisation derived from the Defensive–Patriotic War, which is one of their objections to the new systemic arrangements. He has added that they also insist on providing proper legal and all other forms of protection to veterans who are allegedly charged with war crimes by the Sarajevo Prosecutor’s Office, because even after 30 years, Serb war veterans keep being prosecuted and convicted, while on the other side such charges are rare or initiated merely for statistical purposes. Todorović believes that employing the children of fallen soldiers in the Zvornik area should be carried out in line with labour market needs and through proactive engagement with employers, so that they can work in Republika Srpska, the place their fathers died defending.