Serbia Ignoring Soldiers' Troubles, Officials Warned

Poor standards of living for soldiers, post-traumatic stress disorder and the lack of legislation to assist war veterans are causing suffering and leading to incidents like the suicide threat outside parliament on Thursday, the Serbian Army Union and Veterans' Association told BIRN.

"We have announced in many of our press releases that this will happen more and more often," said Novica Antic, the head of the Serbian Army Union.

"Members [of the army] who fought in wars now feel abandoned, disappointed and rejected," Antic warned.

He said that more than 75 per cent of Serbian Army troops have lower earnings than average and that many of them live in "debt bondage" because they are paying off loans.

Serbian media reported on Thursday that a Serbian Army soldier threatened to blow himself up in front of the parliament building in Belgrade.

Reports said that the man had a pistol and a hand grenade. After talking with police, he surrendered.

Antic said that more than 80 per cent of Serbian Army soldiers are war veterans.

"In a three-year period, we had three suicide attempts and one suicide," he added.

The body of one soldier was found on Monday morning in his apartment in the southern Serbian city of Nis.

Although there is still no official confirmation, Serbian media reported that he killed himself.

In July 2016, a major threatened to set himself on fire in front of the Ministry of Defence. After it was agreed his case would be discussed, he went home.

In March 2016, one soldier shot himself in the head in the local headquarters of the Army in the city of Zajecar.

One month earlier, one of the members of the Serbian Special Forces killed himself on duty in...

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