Veterans of war in Afghanistan urge the Parliament to restore their benefits
Aleh Volchak, head of the human rights center "Legal Assistance to Population"
Former
soldiers-internationalists, veterans of the Afghan war, call on the
government to restore their social benefits and guarantees. An
appropriate appeal was filed to the prime-Minister Mikhail
Miasnikovich by the co-heads of the national NGO of veterans of the
war in Afghanistan “Defenders of the Fatherland” Aliaksandr
Kamarouski and Aleh Volhak.
The authors of the appeal remind
about the benefits, which soldiers-internationals were deprived of
after the adoption of a number of legal actis in 2008. Among such
benefits there is the right to receive free medicines, manufacture
and repair of dentures, ensuring priority vouchers to sanatoriums,
rest homes, the right to free travel, preferential credits for the
construction of housing and others.
The war veterans urged the
government to restore these benefits, as their cancellation is
contrary to the CIS agreements on mutual recognition of benefits and
guarantees, as well as the law of the Republic of Belarus "On
Veterans".
The authors of the appeal urge not to adopt
the presidential decree "On some state social guarantees for
servicemen, soldiers and officers of the internal affairs bodies,
financial investigations, enforcement and emergency units, veterans
of operations in foreign countries and members of their families".
This document , they say, "will reduce the status of
combatants”.
***
In January 2009 Aleh Volchak,
Aliaksandr Kamarouski and Mikalai Autukhovich stated about the
creation of the national NGO "Defenders of the Fatherland".
Soon after it Mikalai Autukhovich was arrested and sentenced to five
years of imprisonment for the transportation and storage of five
cartridges for a hunting rifle. Human rights activists consider him
as a political prisoner, convicted of an active social life and the
struggle against corruption.
Immediately after the abolishment
of the preferences, the social activists threatened to the
authorities they would refuse from their awards if their social
guarantees weren't restored.
As stated to BelaPAN by Aleh
Volchak, the constituent assembly of the national NGO “Defenders of
the Fatherland” can be held in October.
