"In the year since the law on civilian Homeland War victims went into force, 1,775 applications have been filed for obtaining the status and entitlements of civilian victims, of which 596 have been processed," state agency Hina said on Monday, citing an article published by the Vecernji List daily.

“Civilian victims got a law which treats them more justly after 25 years of fighting for the recognition of their suffering in the 1991-95 Homeland War, the paper said. Until last year, their rights were regulated under a law from 1974 which, despite having been amended 12 times, did not cover all civilian war victims and the rights were not tailored to Homeland War victims,” Hina said.

The law on civilian Homeland War victims went into force on 31 July 2021, expanding the rights of existing victims and allowing those who had not been able to exercise them to do so.

When the law was passed, it was estimated that 2,500 applications would be filed. One key aspect is that it eliminated the assets test for obtaining the status of civilian Homeland War victim, allowing the use of family disability allowance for family members who until then could not do so because of pensions, employment or age.

Under this law, civilian victims will not exercise the right to a pension, but solely to family disability allowance, which will compensate widows and parents who lost adult as well as underage children, of whom there are about 400, Julijana Rosandic, president of the association of civilian victims, told the daily.