Nearly 1,900 discharged soldiers from the
Serbia and Montenegro army will be provided with reintegration
assistance to ensure their successful transition into civilian
society and workforce through a two-year programme to be carried
out by IOM.

The nearly six million euro programme, which
is funded by 20 NATO members through a NATO Partnership for Peace
Trust Fund, is to be carried out in close cooperation with the
Serbian Ministry of Defence. Regular information and counselling to
former soldiers on opportunities for gainful civilian employment
will be provided through four regional resettlement centres in Nis,
Novi Sad, Podgorica and Belgrade.

Special attention will be given to former
soldiers who have no formal qualifications other than military
training, who are the sole breadwinners for the family, who will
loose housing benefits and who do not qualify for full pension
rights.

Those eligible will be able to apply for
grants and loans to help them acquire the necessary skills and
knowledge to secure employment on the civilian labour market.

Serbia and Montenegro has initiated a
comprehensive defence reform, which includes a phased downsizing of
its armed forces over the next four years.

IOM has successfully provided reintegration
support to more than 270,000 former soldiers in Afghanistan,
Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Guatemala, Haiti, Mali, Mozambique, the
Philippines, East Timor and more recently in the province of
Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina.

For further information, please contact:

Gregoire Goodstein

Tel: +385 1 481 67 74

E-mail: "mailto:ggoodstein@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">ggoodstein@iom.int