President Milanović Meets with Representatives of Veterans’ Association of Underage Homeland War Volunteer Fighters

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović met today in the Office of the President with representatives of the Veterans’ Association of Underage Homeland War Volunteer Fighters of Croatia, an association actively working on projects to provide psychosocial assistance to Croatian defenders and the members of their families.

The representatives of the Association explained that the project of providing psychosocial assistance is carried out in cooperation with the Minister of Croatian Veterans and Osijek-Baranja County, and underlined that the project of psychosocial empowerment includes field, group and individual counselling with the engagement of professionals having a longstanding experience of working with defenders.

The main problem of the underage volunteer fighters, Croatian defenders, is the fact that the underage defenders have not been recognized as a category of Croatian defenders in the “Zakon o pravima hrvatskih branitelja iz Domovinskog rata i članova njihovih obitelji” (Law on the Rights of Croatian Defenders from the Homeland War and their Family Members), while at the same time they have been recognized in the “Pravilnik o utvrđivanju postotka oštećenja organizma HRVI iz Domovinskog rata” (Regulations on Evaluating the Percentage of Bodily Injuries of Disabled Homeland War Veterans). There was also talk of the possibility of bestowing the Homeland War Memorial Medal upon those participants who have resolved their defender/volunteer status.

At the meeting with President Milanović were Association president Dražen Jurmanović, adviser Morisa Mikić and members Dean Mostina, Danijela Lalić and Robert Vorgić. Alongside President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Ana Marija Katić