18th of April 2022 - The Palliative Team was launched which included six Croatian veterans who volunteered together with the staff of the Vukovar Health Center.

As Novosti.hr reports, the president of the association “Defender Helps the Defender” (Branitelj pomaže branitelju) Željko Miškulin, wanted to expand the projects so three months later, they founded an association whose goal is to support the Croatian veteran population.

“I saw the needs of the veterans and their sense of forgetfulness since they fell ill. Veteran health and mortality problems were high, several of us suffer from multiple sclerosis, and most members have the status of Croatian war invalids. It was my path and guidance to embark on an adventure that proved useful and successful”, says Miškulin. The association has 50 members of volunteers and, although at the beginning it gathered people from Vukovar - Srijem and Osijek - Baranja counties, today they come from other Croatian counties as well.

In the beginning, the founding members and President Miškulin as volunteers of the Vukovar Health Center, provided palliative care to veterans in their homes, socialized and talked with them, and enabled family members to perform other tasks. After some time, they secured a visit from a dentist to a veteran who was then a bedridden patient for two years, with clergy and priests later joining the cause. Now they provide psychological support, organize examinations, controls, ambulance transport, free accommodation, and food during treatment for family members in Zagreb.

“We have excellent cooperation with the hospital in Vukovar but also with health institutions in Osijek, Zagreb, Zadar, and the health Center in Vinkovci. We also focused on helping the children of Croatian veterans with developmental and severe disabilities, we provide them with equipment and aids with Caritas helping us”, explained Miškulin, adding that the veterans are delighted that someone thinks about their needs.

Behind them are four implemented projects, three more are underway, and new education and an increase of the member numbers are planned as well.

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ZAGREB, 27 July, 2021 - The 26th anniversary of Operation Storm will be organised in accordance with epidemiological measures and the central celebration will be held at the football stadium in Knin, while the ceremonial part will take place at the Knin Fortress, Veterans' Affairs Minister Tomo Medved said on Tuesday.

Based on guidance from the Croatian Public Health Institute on compliance with coronavirus restrictions, it has been assessed that the Knin stadium is the best place to organise a dignified commemoration of this important date in our recent history while respecting the epidemiological measures, Medved told a press conference after a meeting of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and relevant cabinet ministers with representatives of the association of retired Croatian army generals.

Before the commemoration, senior state officials will lay wreaths in front of the monument to the casualties and the 1991-1995 Homeland War.

Asked whether he expected representatives of the Serb minority to attend, after Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević of the Independent Democratic Serbian Party (SDSS) attended last year's ceremony, Medved said that an agreement had not yet been reached as to which cabinet members would be attending.

Reporters were also interested in hearing whether anyone from the Croatian Defence Force (HOS), the paramilitary arm of the right-wing Croatian Party of Rights,  would attend, Medved said that the position of the Council for Facing the Past was clear and that all components of the Croatian army and police, as well as associations of Homeland War veterans and casualties, would be invited to attend that important anniversary.

Miljavac: The problem is that young people are being recruited with HOS insignia

The head of the association of retired army generals, Pavao Miljavac, said that the association supports the idea for the commemoration to be held at the stadium due to the COVID-19 situation.

As for HOS's participation in the war, Miljavac said that its members need to be honoured as they went to defend Croatia without any ideology.

"The problem to me is that young people, 19 or 20 year olds,  are again being recruited with HOS insignia," said Miljavac and quoted the late president Franjo Tuđman as saying: "Had we continued down that path, Croatia would hardly have been recognised."

During the meeting, the participants discussed disagreements over the Civilian Casualties of the Homeland War Act.

Miljavac underscored that the minister assured them that the law would be implemented in such a way that it will minimise any possible abuse of the law.

"Strict coordination will be conducted between the Interior Ministry and Croatian defenders. We have a list of who was where - almost 95%, so that it will be strictly implemented, and there shouldn't be any abuse," he said.

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ZAGREB, 26 May, 2021 - Zagreb mayoral candidate Tomislav Tomašević said on Wednesday it was not true that city programmes for war veterans would be halted once his We Can! party came to power but that rather city offices would be merged to improve coordination of city programmes.

"As regards accusations that programmes intended for war veterans would stop if we come to power, I can say that that is not true. I have said on more than one occasion that we will merge offices, I was not speaking about the cancellation of programmes, because I do not know of any other capital city in the world that has 27 departments," Tomašević told a news conference.

On being given police protection

Asked by reporters if he had been given police protection, Tomašević told reporters to ask police about that because security assessment was not what he and his colleagues did.

"We have been in touch with police regarding security risks. But the police are the ones to make decisions on the matter, and I cannot speak on their bahalf about that," Tomašević said.

Asked about the Otvoreno political programme on Croatian Television of Tuesday, in which he faced off against his rival in the 30 May runoff for Zagreb mayor, Miroslav Škoro of the Homeland Movement, and if he would sue him for false claims, Tomašević said that he was focused on his campaign now.

"That did not happen only yesterday. We are talking about an unbelievable misrepresentation of facts, someone is accusing you of covert campaign financing while at the same time they report zero donations," said Tomašević.

He noted that the internet was full of paid advertisements with false information on the We Can! platform and his family.

He added that Željka Markić of the In the Name of the Family civil society group yesterday made one more slanderous claim against him, saying that he had a gross salary of HRK 25,000 in a nongovernmental organisation.

"She should say which NGO she was referring to and when it happened," he said, noting that an unprecedented hate-mongering campaign was under way on the political scene in Croatia.

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ZAGREB, Aug 5, 2020 - Several hundred HOS veterans, including those wearing T-shirts with the inscription "For the Homeland Ready" and those shouting this Ustasha salute, were barred entry into the main square in Knin during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm on Wednesday but were allowed in afterward.

A spokeswoman for the Sibenik-Knin County Police Marica Kosor told Hina that several hundred veterans of the Croatian Defence Force (HOS), the wartime armed wing of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), and other units whom the police did not allow to enter Ante Starcevic Square, sang patriotic songs for the duration of the official programme, unhappy that they were denied entry.

Several shouts of "For the Homeland Ready", a salute used by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime during the Second World War, could be heard, and some wore T-shirts displaying inappropriate content, the police spokeswoman said.

Asked why the veterans were not allowed into the square to watch the programme, Kosor said that they did not have accreditation and the venue could take only about 600 guests because of the epidemiological measures in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

No incidents were reported.

Mladen Todoric, head of a veterans association from Split, told reporters earlier that they had liberated Knin in 1995 and "now there is no room for us, while there is room for Milosevic and the likes of him, apparently because of the coronavirus."

He expressed regret that "our police colleagues have been put in an awkward situation, with them on one side of the barricade and us on the other."

"We hope that this will never happen again, that veterans are barred entry into the square in Knin to pay tribute to their fallen comrades in arms and to celebrate our victory," Todoric said, adding that after the official programme "we will pay our respects and light candles."

Media said that among the HOS veterans was MP Hrvoje Zekanovic of the Croatian Sovereignists party.

The largest number of cooperatives owned by Croatian war veterans are based in the Split-Dalmatia County area, and 56% of them are engaged in agriculture.

Recordings of a meeting between Zoran Milanović and veterans’ representatives are still in the focus of public attention.

SDP president did not hold back, especially while discussing Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With elections just 25 days away, SDP-led People’s Coalition tries to widen its appeal.

If only the Croatian economy could match this rate of growth...

Even though veterans' problems have not been solved, the protest is reportedly ending today.