ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said on Friday the 5 August 1995 Operation Storm would be commemorated across the country but that Knin remained the central place for the Victory Day celebration.
He was commenting on President Zoran Milanović's proposal that this year Victory Day be commemorated in Glina instead of Knin.
Speaking to the press in Petrinja, Medved said 50 towns and municipalities had been financed every year since 2016 where Operation Storm was commemorated, notably in previously occupied areas, adding that the Croatian Army's symbolic victory near Glina had not been forgotten.
That's why, he said, the government and he as the minister of war veterans stand by their position that Operation Storm will continue to be commemorated across the country, but that Knin, as the central point of the victory in the 1991-95 Homeland War, remains the central location for the commemoration.
Medved said Knin was a "symbol of our victory" and that "ours as well as all future generations have the obligation to value that symbol of victory."
Asked "what if veterans and generals propose commemorating at another location," Medved said someone was evidently always looking for a motive for discussions.
He recalled everything the Andrej Plenković cabinet had done for veterans since 2016.
Medved said a big commemoration was held in Glina two years ago and that the commemoration in Knin had been a tradition since 1995.
He also said that there were 150 mass execution sites and graves in Croatia, including 44 in Sisak-Moslavina County, such as Baćin, the second largest mass grave after Ovčara.
Post-earthquake reconstruction
As head of the task force dealing with the aftermath of last December's earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County, he said damaged and unsafe buildings were being demolished and that reconstruction had been stepped up.
He said the Central State Reconstruction and Housing Office had already reconstructed 60 houses, that over 100 were undergoing reconstruction, that studies for the reconstruction of 3,000 would be ready this week, and that contracts for the reconstruction of over 6,000 houses would be signed by 15 July.
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