ZAGREB, 19 April 2022 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said on Tuesday the process of collecting generals' signatures and a motion for the pardon of Josip Perković and Zdravko Mustač were "created" by President Zoran Milanović's Office and Perković's attorney Anto Nobilo.

"I hope that, in signing, the generals received more information about the motives and goals of collecting the signatures and that they will say more about it, as well as the attorney and the President's Office staff," Medved told the press.

He said this was a political initiative started by Nobilo by applying for an early release from prison. The generals who supported the initiative had a noble goal, he added.

Medved said some generals recognised the contribution of Perković and Mustač to the Homeland War as a mitigating circumstance, but added that this contribution could in no way absolve them of the crimes they had committed while working for the former Yugoslav secret service UDBA.

"In particular, it can't absolve them of the sentence delivered in Germany," Medved said about the life sentence the two received for participating in the murder of Croatian dissident Stjepan Đureković in Germany in 1983.

Medved said the decision to pardon Perković and Mustač was up to Milanović, recalling that in his presidential campaign he said he would not pardon anyone.

The minister said that since a letter in which several generals supported the pardon of Perković and Mustač appeared, he had received thousands of messages from Homeland War veterans and families whose members were killed by UDBA.

They are extremely displeased and expect there will be no pardon, he said, adding that this is causing divisions in society, notably among war veterans.

ZAGREB, 12 March 2022 - Post-earthquake reconstruction in Banovina has not stopped even once, 29 family houses are being built and next week the contractors for ten blocks of flats will be known, the head of the task force dealing with the aftermath of the 2020 earthquake, Tomo Medved, said in Petrinja on Saturday.

"At no moment has the reconstruction process been stopped or brought into question, despite all the circumstances cased by Russia's aggression on Ukraine," he told the press after a task force meeting which was attended for the first time by the new Construction Minister Ivan Paladina.

Medved said he was confident that reconstruction would intensify following Paladina's appointment and that citizens "waiting to return to their homes will be satisfied."

Paladina said he was detecting the obstacles to reconstruction and that they were being dealt with. Construction has begun on ten replacement houses and soon there will be 30, he added.

Sisak-Moslavina County prefect Ivan Celjak said the county had submitted 68 projects worth HRK 700 million to the Solidarity Fund, with 52 projects for the construction of 40 houses, 12 roads, 20 medical facilities, 11 schools and nine cultural facilities.

Asked by the press if a possible investigation into his previous activities was an aggravating circumstance, Paladina said he was focused on the work ahead.

Reporters asked Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević if he had become a burden to the post-earthquake reconstruction process due to a possible investigation into incentive allocations.

He said it was not a pleasant situation but that, as a public figure, he must be ready to deal with such a burden and that he would continue to contribute to the reconstruction process.

ZAGREB, 22 Feb 2022 - Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved said on Tuesday the HDZ would nominate a construction minister candidate from its ranks by the end of the week because some ruling coalition partners did not accept the idea to nominate Stjepan Čuraj of the Croatian People's Party.

The first item on the agenda was the partners' position on relations within the coalition, Medved told the press after talks with the coalition partners on a candidate for the minister of physical planning, construction and state assets after Darko Horvat was relieved of duty on Saturday.

Medved said the coalition was stable and firm and that the partners unanimously supported the prime minister and the government in their work and programme.

Regarding the initial proposal that Čuraj be the new minister, Medved said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's idea was to make a gesture towards the liberal coalition partners given the successful cooperation in the coalition and that Čuraj, as state secretary at the Finance Ministry, was an active member of the Banovina post-earthquake reconstruction task force.

Medved said the goal was to appoint a new construction minister in the shortest time possible in order to intensify the post-earthquake reconstruction.

He said the coalition partners would support the HDZ candidate the prime minister would nominate for the office.

Medved did not say explicitly if parliament would vote on the candidate on Friday, saying that Plenković would hold consultations tomorrow with several HDZ officials involved in the selection process, and that everything would be done for the new minister to be appointed as soon as possible.

He said the appointment of the new minister would "certainly freshen up, that is reinforce" the Construction Ministry.

Medved also said the ministry would intensify cooperation with the Central State Reconstruction and Housing Office and the Zagreb Reconstruction Fund to "intensify the reconstruction process."

ZAGREB, Aug 3, 2020 - Minister Tomo Medved on Monday said he was glad the entire government would be in Knin, which is a strong message that "calls on everyone to have a united approach aimed at creating an atmosphere of normalisation and closure of many chapters that, in a certain way, burden Croatian society."

Veterans' Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved attended the opening of an exhibition of photographs in Rijeka entitled "25 years later" as part of the 25th anniversary of the Storm military operation.

"Croatian Veterans' Day is the day in the year that the entire society stops for a moment to recall the defenders who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the homeland. We show our respect to all those who contributed so that we can have an independent and sovereign Croatia and together create a prosperous and even better Croatia," said Minister Medved.

He underscored that he was proud of the cooperation with all Homeland War associations from Rijeka and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. "Croatia has achieved the majority of its strategic objectives and let's be proud of what we have done as a nation," Minister Medved said and called for new challenges that life brings to be accepted with optimism as Homeland War defenders did.

Important to mark 25th anniversary of Operation Storm with dignity

Medved reiterated that the message he wishes to send by attending the commemoration in Grubori is that now the most important thing is to mark the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm in a dignified manner and that later commemorations and activities will be discussed after that.

"We all know what the summer and autumn time brought Croatia, how much suffering and commemorations are ahead of us. As we have done so far, we will pay our respects with dignity both to Croatian defenders who died and to all the civilian victims," he said and added that now "we are concentrating on remembering those courageous defenders, the days of pride and glory."

We will mark the anniversary of Operation Storm on August 5 with dignity with the main programme in Knin as well as in other counties, cities and municipalities, which pleases us. The celebration will be different due to measures related to the coronavirus pandemic and foremost to protect the lives and health of citizens, Medved said.

Asked what deputy prime minister Boris Milosevic's attendance at the anniversary of Storm in Knin means, Medved reiterated that he was glad that the entire government would be there. "That is a strong message that calls on everyone to have a united approach, aimed at creating an atmosphere of normalisation and closure of many chapters that, in a certain way, burden Croatian society," he said.

ZAGREB, July 31, 2020 - Minister for Veterans' Affairs Tomo Medved said on Friday he was glad that all cabinet ministers would attend the central commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin, adding that the government had been given a mandate by the people to build a tolerant society.

"There are a lot of commemorations and anniversaries before us. Twenty-five years after the Homeland War, the government was given a mandate by the people to build relations in society that is based on tolerance, on honouring all victims (of the war), especially civilian victims, and we will continue working towards that end," Medved told the N1 television channel.

Asked if this was a sort of trade-off because he would attend a commemoration for the Serb victims of war in the village of Grubori, while Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic, who is an ethnic Serb, would attend the celebration of the Operation Storm anniversary in Knin, Medved declined to comment.

"The prime minister made a clear statement yesterday and there is no need for further comment," Medved said, adding that he was glad that the whole cabinet would be in Knin on August 5.

"Every autumn when anniversaries of grave war crimes come, it is our obligation to remember all those people, give them our respects and build the future on that basis. Too many years have passed since the Homeland War, the same wounds are being reopened all the time, and now our government has the mandate to establish such relations on the basis of which we will build a society of tolerance and respect and one that has a future," the minister said.

He said that the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm, which crushed a Serb armed insurgency in central and southern Croatia in August 1995 and effectively brought the war to an end, was a great day for the Croatian society and people.

"Every year before the anniversary, emotions run high as we think of our fallen Croatian defenders and everyone who made a sacrifice in this magnificent, brilliant and heroic victory, the greatest in the Croatian history," Medved said.