EUROFEDOP SEMINAR · 2016-06-16 · Report "Veterans in Europe" 2 EUROFEDOP SEMINAR...

Europese Federatie van het OverheidspersoneelFédération Européenne du Personnel des Services Publics • Europäische Föderation der Öffentlich Bediensteten

European Federation of Employees in Public Services • Federación Europea del Personal de los Servicios PúblicosMontoyerstraat 39, B-1000 Brussel, België • Rue Montoyer 39, B-1000 Bruxelles, Belgique

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EUROFEDOP SEMINAR

30.09-01.10.2004NH Koningshof Hotel

Veldhoven, The Netherlands

REPORT

"Veterans in Europe"

Report "Veterans in Europe" 2

EUROFEDOP SEMINAR 30.09-01.10.2004 Veldhoven (The Netherlands)

Veterans in Europe

‘The military execute what society and politics find important.The price for our ideals must not be left to a few.’

With this quote Chairman of the day Pim Gooijers – Chairman of the Trade CouncilDefence – set the tone for the seminar on ‘Care for veterans from a European perspec-tive’. The seminar was an initiative of Eurofedop, the organisation for civil servants

to which ACOM is affiliated, in collaboration with EZA.

Many guests from various European countries had come to Veldhoven for seminar, on 31September and 1 October 2004, to exchange experiences and to listen – in simultaneoustranslation – to the speakers, some of whom entered in the afternoon upon a debate with,among others, General De Veer, known for his report on veterans.

This panel discussion made it very clear that a lot remained to be improved. ‘Meaningful-ness’ is, for instance, a crucial factor in the matter whether problems arise or not. But whatis meaningfulness? Is it one’s conviction, does it require a spiritual attendant – or is mean-ingfulness something like ‘seeing the results of one’s actions’, along with the need to(broadly) communicate those results?

Another point, focused more on the practice of care for veterans, is the presence of a ‘frontoffice’. It is still possible that veterans are left to their own devices; relief trajectories arestill not properly streamlined. Particularly General De Veer advocated an unambiguouspoint of view: ‘Not always in the same manner, but indeed always from the same point ofview, a military man or woman must be attended before, during and after each mission.Time and again the situation must be reviewed.’ Particularly a long time after the mission,when the military man or woman is a civilian again, this attending has to improve. As DeVeer put it: ‘Bridges must be built towards the civilian physicians, and a complete admini-stration of veterans must be set up.’



Change in culture

MP Ineke Aasted-Madsen was also present. She pictured a future in which there are verymany veterans – products of the many current missions – and the importance of a changein culture among general practitioners in particular and in society in general. However,linking veterans to actively serving units, as she suggested, works only for large groups.ACOM President Jan Kleian pointed out that in this working method a lot of military peo-ple, sent on ‘loose’ missions, were left aside. He also touched upon the basic problem ofdefinition: as a matter of fact, who is a veteran? There is no legal definition whatsoever.

He pointed out, further, that Defence must always take up its responsibility in the matter ofcare for veterans, even if this does not mean that Defence must do everything itself. Onepossibility would be: ‘more contact with the home front and with the social organisationsthat count veterans among their clients. Now they are calling us, as a trade union.’

Care for veterans

Back to the morning session. The speakers brought several aspects of care for veterans tothe notice of the participants. Minister of State Cees van der Knaap, the Belgian medicalcommander Prof. M. Zizi, Dr J. van der Meulen (Stichting Maatschappij en Krijgsmacht –Society and Army Foundation), Deputy Director of the Beukbergen training centre Drs K.Ubels, Drs J. Weerts of the Kennis- en Onderzoekscentrum Veteranen Instituut (study andresearch centre on veterans) and Inge Heylen of the Belgian trade union federation CCODall stated their views. Then Jan Kleian, General President of ACOM, closed the morningsession. Below please find a summary of some of these speeches.

Minister of State van der Knaap: ‘It is my conviction that the degree of civilisation of asociety is directly proportional to the extent of recognition of, and to the quality of thecare for, veterans.

When I say ‘veteran’, I mean both the ‘older’ veteran who served in war circumstancesand the ‘young’ veteran who won his or her spurs in a peace operation. I am pleased withthe fact that the discussion on the need for a proper veteran policy is being increasingly



had in the international forums. Last autumn, for instance, veterans and policymakers fromthirteen Northern European countries met in Denmark to discuss the support for veteransof peace missions.

Cees van der Knaap

Two central questions were: who is responsible for the after-care for veterans and victimsof the service? And: how should veterans organise themselves? One of the observationswas that the military from various nationalities are more and more involved in joint peaceoperations, whereas the after-care for them differs strongly from country to country.’

Veteran care in the Netherlands

‘Last week, when the Queen of the Netherlands opened Parliament, I announced that carefor ‘young’ veterans required further improvement. I’m referring in this to the recommen-dations on the care for veterans as given by the former Inspector General of the MilitaryForces, Lieutenant General De Veer. Thus, Defence will approach the ‘young’ veteransmore actively, without imposing care or medicine upon them. An important feature of thismore active approach is that the civilian attendant, particularly the general practitioner, willbe better equipped to refer veterans with health complaints, caused by their missions from



the past, to the right attendant. In this respect, the structure of the military spiritual healthcare will be examined in the coming year.

A blueprint for the reorganisation of the military spiritual health care and a clear view onthe care for actively serving military people as well as for veterans will have to be ready in2005. That is why I want to say to ACOM: your conclusion that veteran care is no priorityat all for Defence is so wrong. The opposite is true: Defence is stepping up its efforts tofurther improve the veteran care, despite the economy measures at Defence.

Ilse Heylen

Love of ease

There is a growing social interest in military mission-related health problems. This is a goodthing. At the same time I perceive in the media a trend to connect in a rather easy mannerviolence offences involving former military people with their mission past. I whish to firmlystand up against these easy-going statements that fail to stand the test. At the same time Iconsider it an impetus to promote scientific research into military mission-related healthproblems.



That is why Defence will set up, at short notice, an expertise centre at which all this re-search work will be compiled. Still, we should keep realising that all the efforts to furtherimprove the veteran care also have their limits. You cannot undo the grief of military peo-ple who return psychologically damaged from a mission.

Another point for special attention in the Dutch veteran policy is the relation between‘old’ and ‘young’ veterans. Next year, on the birthday of Prince Bernhard, the first Dutchveterans’ day will be organised as a token of recognition and respect both for war veter-ans and for peace-mission veterans. Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is the driving forcebehind this initiative. ‘An annual veterans’ day is a new step in the development of aDutch veteran culture’, the Minister of State concluded.

Legitimacy

‘Books about war are never closed, on the contrary. They are constantly reread and rewrit-ten’, said Dr J. van der Meulen of the Society and Army Foundation. ‘Veterans are not alland not always that good in, and I am not really thinking of just the India veterans, to ac-cept this and to acknowledge the legitimacy of criticism and controversy in the matter ofwar histories. They are so right to be up in arms against generalising allegations, using thepower of arguments. But there neither can nor must be a taboo on raking up, unravellingand calling into question time and again the why and how, the consequences and resultsof waging war. What was at stake and what justified the fact that soldiers were killed inaction? Why were civilians not spared or protected? Such questions are mutatis mutandisalso pertinent for Bosnia (as from 1992), Somalia (1993), Rwanda (1994). And for Iraq (asfrom 2003). This brings us from the big wars of the twentieth century to the conflicts sincethe Cold War and since 9/11. And therefore from old to young veterans. They have a lot incommon, enough anyway to be counted to the same category, even if not every countryhas used or is using the same definition of the veteran concept. I find the congruence be-tween the self-image of the military and the public perception important: I consider myselfa veteran, and that is how other see me. Anyhow, the essential fragments of the classicalimage of veterans are sufficiently recognisable.



Also about young veterans it is often told that they feel abandoned, by the authorities, De-fence, society, their environment. They too, so it seems, are going through the cycle fromalienation via discharge and counselling to recognition and adaptation. I have put thisvery schematically, of course, taking into consideration the heterogeneity of their experi-ences and the way they deal with. It has been found further, at least that is how I under-stand it, that by far most of the young veterans are OK or will be OK. Even if it is not thateasy to put exactly into words, I believe that we as society have enough notions to markout and acknowledge the special position of military people. And in the last instance thisstill has something to do with the ultimate sacrifice that is asked of them.

Dr. J. van der Meulen

It has become far more exceptional that soldiers get killed in action, thank God. The deathof a military man or woman was really no news during the police actions. Generallyspeaking there are strong differences between the conscript mass armies that fought orhelped deter the wars of the twentieth century, and the small regular armies that now crushcrises, enforce peace, fight terrorism. There is a lot to be said about these differences, fromall kinds of angles, but this would lead us too far here. Most relevant for today’s exchangeof views is, in my opinion, the other position these relatively small regular armies are takingin society. In the present-day United States, the debate in the media and in the scientificliterature is about the sociodemographically much smaller recruitment basis for the all-volunteer force. What does it mean when the sacrifices of the military in Iraq (the dead, thewounded, the traumatised) weigh disproportionally heavily on certain groups, sections of



society? And are therefore not borne by a cross-section of the population and especiallynot by the (higher) middle class and the socio-economic elite? In the Netherlands theseissues are not yet under discussion with the same acuteness, for several reasons. This doesnot alter the fact that it would be good to have an eye for such historical changes. In thelonger term this civilian-military macrodevelopment will certainly have an effect on the mi-croprocess of recognition. Of military people and therefore of veterans. Anyhow, recogni-tion remains dynamic that way.’

High threshold

After the speech of Drs K. Ubels about the practical work at Beukbergen Training Centre,Drs J. Weerts of the Veterans’ Institute took the floor. After having elucidated the recom-mendations of the Tiesinga Commission, he went into the Dutch veteran policy so far, pic-turing the ‘possibilities of improving the veteran care’: ‘For many people there is indeedstill a threshold to seek help, and despite all efforts there are still veterans who are left totheir own devices. Possible causes are the serious problems facing a small part of the pre-sent veterans’ generation, the impossibility of reaching and informing all the veterans andthe fact that, in spite of everything, some veterans cannot or will not take the step towardscare. To some extent we should see our own impotence and limitations in this: even thebest care system cannot prevent or solve all the problems.

Drs. K.H. Ubels Drs. J. Weerts



Widening the range of veteran care requires the availability of a complete veteran admini-stration. Also the field of research requires improvement. The last and most important fieldthat can be improved is the communication … with the target group itself. What are theneeds and wishes of the veterans themselves in the field of care? How do they want to beinformed and approached? This makes it necessary to constantly examine their needs inthe field of care and recognition. This brings me back to the starting points of the veteranpolicy: recognition and care. Since 1990 there has been a consistent veteran policy, whichhowever requires a strong continuation. The work is not finished yet, and maybe it willnever be.’

Unruly

ACOM President Jan Kleian closed the morning session: the ‘veteran and army’ file is anextraordinarily unruly file, which for years has got the special attention of ACOM. Alreadyin 1996, ACOM published a relevant report, in cooperation with CNV. This report will beupdated next year.

Jan Kleian



Now I would like to seize this opportunity to react to some points in the ‘veteran para-graph’ in the Personnel Letter 2004. Let us begin with the aspects we evaluate as ‘posi-tive’. What the Minister of State announced as a ‘clear view on care in combination with asystematic quality control’ will certainly satisfy a dire need, provided that it is adequatelyshaped and implemented. Better late than never, we would say in this respect, withoutshouting hurrah beforehand for that matter. There is no reason for that, for the time being.Positive in the eyes of ACOM is also the fact that a blueprint for the reorganisation of themilitary spiritual health care must be ready by the middle of next year. A third positivepoint is the fact that the relation between Defence and the Veterans’ Institute Foundationis going to be transformed into a customer-supplier relation. This does not alter by anymeans our point of view that the subsidies, made available in this respect, must be a perma-nent part of the Defence budget.

Unfortunately, the approach of the Minister of State to this file leaves a lot to be desired.The observation of the Minister of State that the present veteran policy for the group ofold veterans can be generally considered adequate is so much short of our expectations.And we also miss attention for the case management aspect. This branch of care is not yetknown within the Veterans’ Institute.

Report

On the basis of our long involvement in the veterans’ issue we were moderately pleasedwith the conclusions of the report retired Lieutenant-General C.J.M. de Veer, former In-spector General of the Army, submitted last summer to the Minister of State for Defence.Yet, some essential aspects were lacking in the De Veer Report, which ACOM told theMinister of State in writing last summer. At the time, for instance, ACOM pleaded for en-larging and deepening the (after)care obligation (particularly also for family members of the(PTSS)-traumatised former military man or woman), a closer definition of the ‘veteran’ con-cept and an adequate anchoring of the Spiritual Care in the veterans’ file. One of our ab-solute conditions in this respect was the fact that the government should not ‘shop selec-tively’ in the De Veer Report, as it already did in so many other files, particularly also in thesocial security file.



Front office

Much to our disappointment, this was what happened. The chief recommendation of Gen-eral De Veer to create within Defence a recognisable ‘front office’ both for veteran careand for military service victims has not been taken over, largely referring to the existinggoverning bodies, which – maybe after some ‘fine-tuning’ – should be enough to ap-proach the veterans’ problem adequately. In this sense, the Minister of State does nothingmore than giving a declaration of intent about compulsory efforts. The only pledge – inconformity with the recommendations of De Veer – is the creation of an expertise centre. Itis precisely in this regard we have a few objections. At this moment, the Knowledge andResearch Centre of the Veterans’ Institute acts as an independent body. We fear that the‘knowledge centre’, as General De Veer puts it, will lack the independence and impartialitythat would be required to guarantee an academic quality. In that case the adage ‘whopays, decides’ could come into force. It would then be better to relinquish as from now thecreation of an expertise centre.

All in all, these elements nourish the doubt, already prevalent within ACOM, that Defenceis not really interested – chiefly for budgetary reasons – in dealing adequately with theveteran and PTSS issue. An extraordinarily short-sighted attitude as it will not remain so-cially unobserved if in this case the whole issue boomerangs.

No European perspective

In conclusion, I wish to dwell briefly on veteran care from a European perspective. There isno such perspective. The topics in Europe are Defence, quick reaction forces and equip-ment. The human being in the military man or woman is completely neglected; no politiciantalks about the military man or woman as a human being, only about bombs and shells. Inmy opinion it is high time there came a European platform in which the debate can beopened about the military man or woman as a human being, about veteran care, about pre-vention, about working circumstances and so on. Perhaps the Netherlands, at this momentthe President of the European Union, can make a start with this.

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