Courtesy of Sasa Pavlic

A Croatian called Sasa Pavlic has started a long walk from the city of Rijeka to Zagreb with the intention of leaving his 20-kg wooden cross outside the government building in Zagreb’s upper town – as a symbolic message that instead of buying military jets, the authorities should buy medicine to treat sick hildren.

“I’ve started this journey because in the same day in the same newspapers I read that for children with the muscular atrophy there is no money while our government is buying military jets for billions of [Croatian] kunas,” Pavlic explained to BIRN.

He started his walking tour on Saturday and expects to arrive in Zagreb on Thursday at around 10am.

“I don’t know whether they will take it, but my intention is to leave this cross to officials, so they can take a look at it every time they decide there is no money for children’s treatment but they have the money for military jets,” Pavlic said near the town of Karlovac on Tuesday.

The government announced on March 29 that it will buy used, modernised Israeli F-16 C/D Barak combat aircrafts, which will cost almost 400 million euros.

Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic called it “a historic day for the Croatian Air Force”, Beta news agency reported.

“This decision is investing in the security of the Republic of Croatia, is accessible and is best for us,” he said.

The same day, media reported that the government will not help children who suffer muscular atrophy by buying expensive medicine for their treatment.

This is not first time the authorities are facing criticism over this issue. On November 30, citizens and parents of children suffering from this illness protested in Zagreb following a statement of the Health Minister, Milan Kujundzic, that “nobody is so rich that it can cure everyone”.

Courtesy of Sasa Pavlic

“I could not just close the newspapers and sit calmly,” Pavlic commented.

He added that, although no reactions have come as yet from the Croatian Government about his quest, people he is meeting on his walk are supportive, and often cry. Some of them even helped him carry his heavy cross.

“Nobody can be indifferent,” he said.

Pavlic added that his aim is not to “overthrow the government” but to send a message. “I don’t want any more children or parents to hear that there is medicine in the world but that there is no money for it to be bought,” he added.

He explained that the cross he is carrying “represents all the suffering of children who are ill and breathing with the help of respirators and fed with a probe.

“It is unbelievable that there is no money for them, but there is money for military aircraft,” he concluded.

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