Afghan war veterans deprived of housing benefits

More than 800 veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war were deprived to the right to take cheap housing loans.

The organising committee of Defenders of Motherland association plans to demand to Council of Ministers to return Afghan war veterans the right to get cheap loans, Belorisski Partizan reports.

The organising committee to create Defenders of Motherland republican association received complaints from veterans, who said they were removed from the special housing register in June 2012. It was revealed that more than 800 Afghan war veterans across Belarus lost the right to get cheap housing loans.

The veterans faced the problem after Lukashenka issued Decree No. 13 on January 6, 2012 “On Some Issues of Providing State Support to Build (Revamp) or Buy Dwelling Houses”.

The decree was signed to optimize the mechanism of preferential lending for housing construction. The first paragraph of the decree says war veterans have the right to get preferential loans, but the second paragraph does not give them priority for receiving cheap loans.

Afghan war veterans do not have a separate housing queue any more. The decree conflicts with the Law on Veterans, which gives priority to Afghan war veterans to get home loans and the CIS Agreement of 1993, in which the CIS member states were obliged not to reduce social benefits for war veterans.

Some Afghan war veterans, who became members of housing associations, but didn't take loans before the release of the Decree, are offered to take loans with interest rates from 22 to 31% instead of 5% loans. The Decree infringes on the rights of a large number of people.