Tripoli 27 February 2013:
Congress today, Wednesday, published a law giving life pensions to Thuwar who are disabled as a result of . . .[restrict]being injured in the revolution. The disabled will be paid between LD 3,00 and LD 5,000 a month depending on their disability. They will also be provided with free medical insurance, vehicles and homes.
Congress hopes the law, which was passed yesterday, will finally settle thuwar discontent at the way they have been treated since the end of the revolution and bring an end to the continued occupation of the Congress debating chamber by between 16 to 20 disabled revolutionaries.
As a result of the occupation, Congress voted on the law in the conference room of the Rixos Hotel next door.
It had been earlier reported (including by the Libya Herald) that they had all been ejected from the Congress building following a law being passed to ensure that it should meet unmolested. However, although some left, not all did and the chamber still remains occupied.
“It’s a very good deal,” one Congress official said today. “Probably, the best they’re going to get.”
However, there are reports that some thuwar are looking for a minimum of LD 6,000 a month, plus a considerably larger one-off payment in addition to the medical treatment, cars and houses.
That they had to take such drastic action to ensure the same degree of medical treatment and adequate pensions that are given to war wounded in developed countries has shocked many Libyans. In the US, Vietnam veterans receive free medicare as well as a number of other benefits. [/restrict]
