PM Milanovic: No one wanted to take anything away from veterans

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic commented on his brief meeting with Homeland War veterans on Friday during a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of Operation Flash in Okucani.

"No one wanted to take anything away from the veterans. If there is a misunderstanding, I guess we will smooth it over. Over the last three and a half years we have indeed preserved the budget for veterans and even increased it a bit, and we will do the same in the future," Milanovic told the press in the northwestern city of Varazdin where he was attending a May Day celebration.

Milanovic said that his meeting with veterans, when it happens, will be away from cameras. He stressed that veterans' financial entitlements had not been reduced and that the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs was the only government department whose budget had not been cut.

A group of veterans have been protesting outside the Veterans' Affairs Ministry building in Zagreb for six months now, demanding the resignation of Minister Predrag Matic and two of his closest aides and the passage of a constitutional law that would guarantee their rights.

(Hina) vm

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