The 33rd anniversary of the attack on the police station in Pakrac and the start of the Homeland War was marked on Saturday in that western Slavonian town, with War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved being among those in attendance.

“An attack on Croatian state institutions is today called terrorism. The response was as it should have been,” Medved said recalling the start of the Great Serbian aggression on Croatia and of the Homeland War.

It is important to repeat the truth about the events of that time, he said. “We are not here to glorify the war, but to express gratitude to the defenders… for what they did in those difficult days,” the minister said, noting that he would not get tired of searching for the truth about the fate of people gone missing in the war.

Medved also announced the establishment of a war veterans’ centre in Pakrac.

Wreaths were laid at a memorial in the centre of Pakrac in the vicinity of the local police station, where on 1 March 1991 the Homeland War started with an armed conflict between Croatian police forces and Croatian Serb rebels.

On that day, Serb police reservists tricked and disarmed 16 Croatian police officers and occupied the police station. They took down the Croatian flag from the police station and municipal building and raised the Serbian flag. Croatian forces responded and in the early morning hours of 2 March special police forces took back the police station and restored Croatian constitutional order in the town.