War veterans clash with government in Bosnia

[citizen k]

War veterans clash with government in Bosnia

Wednesday, April 21 09:08 pm
ITN

Police have fired teargas at thousands of veterans of Bosnia's 1992-95 war when they smashed the windows of government buildings during a protest against cuts to their benefits.

The former soldiers and their families arrived from across Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation to express dissatisfaction that the government has launched austerity measures under an IMF stand-by deal by first cutting their payments.

The protests turned violent even before its official start, with some groups pushing and bringing down a protective fence and smashing government building windows with stones.

Special police forces in full riot gear stood between protesters and the building after using teargas. Dozens of people were given first aid due to breathing problems and fifteen protesters were injured, two seriously, doctors from Sarajevo's Cinical Centre said.

Bosnia clinched the 1.2 billion euros stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund last year to ease the impact of the global economic crisis and preserve fiscal stability. Under the deal, the government of Bosnia's two regions, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic, have to cut public spending and especially generous benefits granted to veterans groups as a pre-election sweetener in 2006.

The veterans are strongly opposed to the introduction of a property census as the main criterion for their payments, due to come into force in January 2011.

[Razgovory]

Dose rounding up young men and boys and shooting them in ditch count toward being a war veteran?

[HisMajestyBOB]

Dose rounding up young men and boys and shooting them in ditch count toward being a war veteran?

It depends. Killing Serbs = hero and war veteran.
Killing Croats, Bosniaks, etc. = war criminal