Are employed veterans discriminated against in the public sector?

At the age of 16, Labinot Dezdar joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), becoming part of the 135-euro-based Brigade “Agim Zeneli” on the Dukagjin Plain.

Like many young people of that time, he became part of the war with the purpose of releasing and freedom in the country.

Labino from Peja, after the war ended, was engaged in the Kosovo Protection Corps (TMK) for nine years as a communications and IT officer. After his resignation there, he is now 17 years old in the Pec municipality as leader of the technology and communication sector.

He never managed to profit from the state the war veteran's pension, which he speaks of with disappointment for institutions.

This is not material good or something, but it is the problem with denying legal law. It's an insult to our sacrifice and blood for this country. I ask from public opinion, the government to reflect because it is not just to us as a veteran, but to the very values upon which this state is built. It's very difficult to discuss the matter now after 27 years. Because discrimination we never even thought of... The divisions that have been created especially against veterans of public servants, in this case me and many of my colleagues working in the public sector from that private sector, I think it's very meaningless”, he says.

Despite his complaints and many fellow fighters, he says they were not taken into account by institutions.

The problem is that when we've been directed not only to me, but also to many of my colleagues when they've been addressed this recently after the Supreme Court's decision, but even when we've addressed the Pension Ent, actually not even the fundamental right guaranteed by the law of general administrative procedure and other sub-legal norms for complaints, demands, parachutes, or even that right they haven't given us at least a rejection. Let's not talk about the rest. So from the start we've been stumbled. When we've gone to make decisions, we've been told that we have a decision from the top that these demands will not be addressed, he says, among other things.

Labinos Dezdari says the only door left to the Association of Veterans in the Kosovo Liberation Army, where they have submitted some documents.

The deputy head of this organisation, Gazmend Syla, says it is discrimination and violation of rights.

“Yes, of course, it's a violation of rights, and we think that the first law, but also the second law, never meets our demands, means a dignified treatment of the veteran of the Kosovo Liberation Army. However, these are the laws, these laws have been voted by MPs from the Parliament of our Republic. So we're always going to need each vet, whether the one in the public sector working or in the private sector. However, it is not something that is in our hands, but it has always been in the hands of MPs who have raised their hands and voted this law”, he says.

According to him, the law itself discriminates against this war category, since they are not allowed to benefit.

The law doesn't see it benefits the veteran who is employed in the public sector, who has the right to benefit from this 50% veteran pension. That's why they only get the chance for veterans who are employed in the private sector... There is no way that veterans working in the public sector can exploit this right because it is specified correctly in the law, so in this law that was voted for in 2016, that only veterans working in the private sector” have that right, he adds.

Naim Jakaj from the Kosovo Institute for Justice says the future legislature would have to initiate changing this law.

Under the law of veterans and law that has been changed, only veterans employed in the private sector have the right to enjoy state retirement as well. So the state-funded pension schemes. But not even veterans who are employed in the public sector. This is a discrimination -- this is a difference in dealing with hundreds of thousands of veterans in the Republic of Kosovo -- that the state itself has done with the adoption of the veterans' law, that is, by the government's proposal and the adoption of the Kosovo Convention by law... the 10th legislation to come, since in the first few months, after the establishment of parliamentary commissions, would have to be initiated to change the law on veterans, so that it lifted the restrictions that veterans would recover even when they are employed in the public sector. Such an issue would have to be urgent, because actually, according to the law, these are making a difference in the face of”, he says.

Labinos Dezdari of Peja says the veterans' request to enjoy state-owned benefits is not a privilege but a respect for sacrifice.

A state that does not treat with dignity those who bring freedom risk losing even the trust of this category, but also of citizens. The sacrifices are many, I'm not to discriminate against any category”, Dezdar concludes.

In October of last year, the Supreme Court of Kosovo has abolished an administrative directive provision urging KLA veterans to present evidence that they were not in working relations to take advantage of the pension. / KP/ Periscopi/