War veterans protesting in Tuzla in February. Photo: Anadolu.

The payment of the 38 million euro loan trance has been suspended because the proposed new Law on the Rights of War Veterans in Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Federation entity will jeopardise the financial stability of the Federation, the IMF’s resident representative in the country, Francisco Parodi, told N1 TV on Monday.

“The costs that are presented to us, of 14 million marks (about seven million euro), will be much higher, and we are talking about several hundred million marks according to some estimates. This will completely disable finances in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the years to come,” Parodi said.

“This will prevent governments from spending money on primary needs such as education, health or investment. Another area we are particularly concerned about is that there is no veterans’ register in the Federation. The chances of scams and corruption are even bigger now,” he added.

The IMF warned the Bosnian authorities in early July that increased public spending will affect the agreement that the country has with the global financial institution.

The IMF then postponed the conclusion of its review of its credit programme for Bosnia and Herzegovina until it carried out further analysis of the salary increase in the Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, and increased veterans’ benefits in the Federation.

The new law granting veterans benefits has not been adopted by lawmakers yet, and on Monday, former soldiers temporarily blocked two highways near the eastern Bosnian town of Tuzla and a road near the Bijaca border crossing with Croatia in protest at the delay. Protesting veterans blocked the same border crossing in July.

The situation threatened to escalate when one of the veterans threatened suicide, dousing himself with petrol and lighting a cigarette lighter, but other veterans managed to stop him from immolating himself.

War veterans in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been protesting for more than a year, demanding the adoption of laws that will improve their social status.

Some of them set up camp in front of the Federation government building in an effort to pressure MPs to adopt the new law.

The veterans have three main demands. They are asking for 326 Bosnian marks (about 167 euros) per month in benefits for unemployed veterans, and for every former soldier to get two or three Bosnian marks (one to 1.5 euros) for each month they served during wartime.

They also want the establishment of a single, unified registry of veterans in the Federation who were members of the Bosnian Army and the Croatian Defence Council in order to weed out people who have falsely declared themselves to be veterans.

The third demand is an end to the financing of what they see as unnecessary veterans’ associations by the Federation and cantonal governments.

On July 26, the Federation’s House of Peoples, one of two houses in the Federation parliament, adopted the draft law on the rights of veterans, but rejected amendments which were earlier adopted by the other house, the House of Representatives.

The same amendments were also rejected by the Federation government.

In order to solve the problem, a commission was formed to harmonise the text of the law.

The final version of the law should be presented to both houses of the Federation parliament on Thursday.

Read more:

Bosnian Veterans Take Protest to MPs in Sarajevo

Bosnia Police Dismantle Veterans’ Blockade in Tuzla

Protesting War Veterans Block Roads in Bosnian Towns