ZAGREB, 7 January, 2022 - A ceremony was held in Podrute near the northwestern town of Novi Marof on Friday to commemorate five European Community peace monitors whose unarmed helicopter was shot down by the Yugoslav Air Force 30 years ago.
A helicopter carrying EU monitors Colonel Enzo Venturini and Lieutenants Marco Matta, Silvano Natale and Fiorenzo Ramacci of Italy and French Lieutenant Jean Loup Eychenne was shot down above Podrute by a Yugoslav Air Force MiG-21 on 7 January 1992. Everyone on board was killed.
In their memory, wreaths were laid by the representative of the President of the Republic, Dragan Lozančić, the representative of the Parliament President, Zdravka Bušić, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman as the representative of the Prime Minister, Ilario Schettino of the Italian Embassy, the representative of the French Ambassador, Florence Skrlj, Varaždin County prefect Anđelko Stričak and the mayor of Novi Marof and member of Parliament Siniša Jenkač.
Addressing the ceremony, Lozančić stressed the importance of the role of the European monitors in spreading the truth about what was going in Croatia at the time.
"The European monitors had a very important role in spreading the truth about everything that was going on in Croatia. That was very important for promoting the justice of our struggle for freedom and international recognition," Lozančić said.
Bušić expressed hope that the memory of these brave people would continue to be cherished, while Grlić Radman noted that this incident had accelerated the international community's decision to recognise Croatia's independence and shown the true nature of the Serbian expansionist policy.
"I think that this was also an attempt to stop the democratisation and independence of those countries that lived in a totalitarian regime," Grlić Radman said.
Schettino and Skrlj spoke of the importance of the European Union, its values and the common goals of the member states, while Stričak and Jenkač noted that this incident was part of Croatia's path to international recognition and that it clearly showed who the aggressor was and who the victim.
