Kosovo Liberation Army veterans vowed to protest if their war pensions don’t start in January, but the authorities said that a verified headcount of ex-guerrillas still needs to be finished.

The head of the Council for the Protection of the Rights of KLA Fighters, Xhevdet Qeriqi, warned on Tuesday that veterans would take to the streets in protest if the authorities don’t start paying the ex-guerrillas’ pensions at the beginning of 2015.

Qeriqi said that many war veterans were living in harsh conditions and complained that the authorities had taken two years to complete a headcount of former fighters which will provide the basis for their pension rights.

“We will protest in January if the process is not finished,” Qeriqi told BIRN.

“This is unacceptable. A process that could take just two months has been prolonged for two years,” he said.

He insisted that all the commanders in the KLA’s various operational zones during the 1998-99 conflict know exactly how many soldiers were in their ranks.

The government commission tasked with verifying who actually fought for the KLA promised on Tuesday that very few applications from people claiming to be former guerrillas were still to be checked.

“All I can say is that around one per cent of applications remain unverified. We are working on it and I can say that everything will be ready for January,” said Faik Fazliu, the head of the commission.

However Fazliu could not say exactly how many of the 66,300 applications have been verified so far.

Fazliu told BIRN in November that the government estimates that some 20,000 people fought for the KLA.

The new Kosovo parliament on Monday approved the first reading of the 2015 draft budget, in which 24 million euro has been allocated for war veterans.

Unemployed veterans will receive a monthly payment not less than the minimum wage in Kosovo – 170 euro for people over 35 years old and 130 euro for those under 35.