an hour agoThis is the official number of veterans in Croatia
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)In 2012 Croatia's government had published the list of former fighters who had participated in the 1991-1995 war of independence in an effort to prevent widespread abuse of veterans' status. The three ministers -- the defence, the interior and the vetrans -- all three former soldiers had submitted the veterans' registry [...]
The three ministers -- the defence, the interior and the vetrans -- all three former soldiers had submitted the registry of war veterans.
The list included an official figure of 505,221 war veterans -- 404,397 names of veterans who participated in fighting and 18,166 people who contributed to war in various forms, reports IndexOnline.
The number of veterans who participated in the war for independence has long been the subject of controversy in Croatia as well.
Many veterans claim that many others have either exaggerated or lied about their involvement in war in order to receive material privileges envisioned by the law for former war terrorists.
The publication of the registry was an election promise of the centre-left coalition led by Zoran Milanovic, who, as prime minister, appointed Predrag Matic (a veteran known by the battle in Vukovar), as minister of veterans.
The previous government, led by the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, he had completed the register, but he refused to publish it, claiming it would be revealing private secret data.
The controversy about who fought in war has lasted a while in Croatia as well.
Within two hours of publishing the registry, about 10,000 people had contacted the Ministry of Veterans to complain about false fighters still on the list.
Unlike Kosovo, however, where the number of false veterans is large -- in Croatia, out of 502,678 veterans -- reportedly about 3,000 are false veterans. The salary a veteran receives in Croatia is said to be 677 euros.
