Serbia Adopts Law Boosting Disabled Veterans’ Rights

The Serbian Assembly on Saturday adopted a new law boosting the rights of military invalids and giving some new rights to war veterans from the 1990s wars and World War II, although it failed to extend benefits to victims of conflicts outside Serbian territory.

Vuk Stanic, the secretary of Association of Military, War and Peacetime Invalids, said that the law is good for military veterans, particularly because their disability allowance will be increased.

"In general, for us, wartime military invalids, the law is phenomenal; it is also good for peacetime military invalids who already have [recognised] status, and for future peacetime military invalids it is slightly worse as they will have to reach a higher degree of disability in order to have permanently recognised status as a military disabled person," Stanic told BIRN.

The law gives more rights to war veterans, but these are largely symbolic.

Zoran Djordjevic, the Serbian Minister for Labour, Employment, Veterans' Affairs and Social Affairs said that the new legislation introduces a new category of beneficiary that does not exist in the current law - fighters who participated in "armed actions" in the 1990s.

The current law covers veterans from WWII, the 1912-1918 Balkan wars and what it describes as veterans "who performed military duties… in armed operations after 17 August 1990".

Djordjevic explained that under the new legislation, people who fought in the 1990s conflicts will now have the right to a veteran's allowance and special pension rates, and will be given a medal and a special uniform.

"This corrects the injustice done to the fighters of the last war and, as has already been pointed out, ensures their overall position in society is improved," Djordjevic...