At the age of 16, Labinot Dezdari joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), becoming part of the 135th "Agim Zeneli" brigade, in the Dukagjin Plain.
Like many young people of that time, he became part of the war with the goal of liberation and freedom for the country.
Labinoti from Peja, after the end of the war, was engaged in the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) for nine years as a communications and IT officer. After resigning there, he has been working in the Municipality of Peja for 17 years as the head of the technology and communications sector.
He never managed to receive a war veteran's pension from the state, which he speaks of with disappointment to the institutions.
"Today it is not material goods or anything like that, but the problem is the denial of legal rights. It is an insult to our sacrifice and blood for this country. I ask public opinion, the government to reflect because this is not only towards us as veterans but also towards the very values on which this country was built. It is very difficult to discuss this issue now after 27 years. Because we have never even thought about discrimination.... the divisions that have been created especially towards veterans of public servants, in this case, to me and many of my colleagues who work in the public sector from the private sector, seem very meaningless," he says.
Despite his and many fellow fighters' complaints, he says they have not been taken into account by the institutions.
"The problem is that when we have addressed not only me, but also many of my colleagues when they have addressed them recently after the Supreme Court's decision, but also when we have addressed the Pensions Authority, in fact, not even the elementary right that is guaranteed to us by the law on general administrative procedure and other sub-legal norms for complaints, requests, submissions, they have not even given us that right, at least not even a refusal. Let's not talk about these others. So from the start we have been hindered. When we went to make the decisions, they told us that 'we have a decision from above that these requests will not be processed'", he says, among other things.
Labinot Dezdari says that the only door they have left is the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Organization, where they have also submitted some documents.
The vice president of this organization, Gazmend Syla, says that this is discrimination and a violation of rights.
"Of course it is a violation of rights and we think that both the first and second laws never meet our demands, meaning for a dignified treatment of the veteran of the Kosovo Liberation Army. However, these are the laws, these laws were voted by the deputies of the Parliament of our Republic. Therefore, we will always advocate for each veteran, whether he works in the public sector or in the private sector. However, it is not something that is in our hands, but it has always been in the hands of the deputies who raised their hands and voted for this law," he says.
According to him, the law itself discriminates against this category of war, as they are not allowed to benefit.
"The law does not provide that veterans who are employed in the public sector are entitled to benefit from this 50% of the veteran's pension. Therefore, the opportunity is given only to those veterans who are employed in the private sector... Veterans who work in the public sector have no opportunity to exercise this right, because it is precisely specified in the law, in this law that was voted in 2016, that only veterans who work in the private sector have this right," he adds.
Naim Jakaj from the Kosovo Law Institute says that the next legislature should initiate the amendment of this law.
"According to the law on veterans and the law that has been amended, only veterans who are employed in the private sector have the right to enjoy the state pension. So from pension schemes financed by the state. But not veterans who are employed in the public sector. This is discrimination, this is a difference in treatment of hundreds of thousands of veterans in the Republic of Kosovo, which the state itself has made with the approval of the law on veterans, so from the proposal of the government and the approval of the Assembly of Kosovo by law... The tenth legislature that will come, in the first months, after the establishment, after the formation of parliamentary committees, should initiate the amendment of the law on veterans, in order to remove the restriction that veterans can also enjoy the pension when they are employed in the public sector. Such an issue should be urgent, because currently even according to the law, they are having a difference in treatment", he says.
Labinot Dezdari from Peja says that the veterans' request to enjoy state benefits is not a privilege but respect for the sacrifice.
"A state that does not treat with dignity those who brought freedom, risks losing the trust of this category but also of the citizens. The sacrifices are numerous, I am not for discriminating against any category," concludes Dezdari.
In October last year, the Supreme Court of Kosovo repealed an article of the administrative instruction, which required KLA veterans to present evidence that they were not in an employment relationship in order to benefit from a pension. /KP/
