Kosovo Assembly endorsed today the second hearing of the amended draft Law on the status and the rights of martyrs, disabled persons, veterans, KLA members, civilian victims of war and their families, with 69 votes pro, nine against and one abstention.
However, for some of the deputies, the financial issue for implementation of this draft Law, remains unresolved. AAK deputy, Time Kadrija, said that this Law is welcomed since it includes sexually abused women during the war.“We consider that to some extent, this draft Law is a hope for all those women that will be treated in an institutional manner and will have material and other benefits. Everything that was debated at the session for the certain category of civilian victims is included. The draft Law was amended. The amendment was made to include sexually abused women, and other categories of civilian victims debated today, are included in the basic Law,” said Kadrija.
LDK deputy, Alma Lama, said that the draft law lacks an endorsed budget that would help these victims to some extent. She said that the Commission for Healthcare has proposed allocation of €74 million for this category. “After more than a year from the first hearing, after many delays, we managed today to include the sexually abused victims in the draft Law. However, the bad thing is that the budget that would help the victims at least a little is not approved,” said Lama.
Kadrija stressed that according to some figures, there are 20 thousand sexually abused women during the war, however, she added that there are no official figures. She said that the endorsed Law has left a four year deadline for the women to report. Kadrija called on the sexually abused women during the war, to apply for beneficiaries and added that they should not be embarrassed for what happened to them.
