President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic on Saturday attended the unveiling of a monument at Ljubovo, near Gospic commemorating 68 local Croatian soldiers and police killed in Operation Storm during the war of independence 23 years ago.
“The Homeland War made it possible for us to preserve and freely express our national and state identity, our symbols and our values. That’s why keeping the memory and values of the Homeland War is important, not only for the sake of remembering Croatian defenders and their sacrifices and commemorating war events and victories but also for the sake of preserving all national and state values,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.
The president said that the Croatian soldiers killed were Croatia’s commitment for the future and that it was important to persevere in efforts to ensure better living conditions for all generations. She added that every Croatian defender killed was at the same time a reminder of the most important values of the Croatian people and state.
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She thanked the war veterans for their contribution to the defence of Croatia and the war victory, emphasising that they had fought not only for a free and independent state but also for a just and law-governed state in which the Croatian people and all citizens of Croatia would be able to live in dignity.
The three-metre-high monument is the work of the sculptor Josip Cvrtila. Called The Victor, it portrays a soldier driving the Croatian flag into the ground.
Operation Storm was a military offensive launched by the Croatian army on 4 August 1995 to regain Serb-occupied areas in central and southern Croatia. The operation crushed the four-year-long armed insurgency in the country and ended the war.
