President Zoran Milanovic, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Sunday laid wreaths and lit candles at a memorial in Okucani, paying their respects to those killed in the 1995 Flash military and police operation.

In the operation, 7,200 soldiers and police liberated the occupied parts of Slavonia in less than 32 hours. Forty-two defenders were killed, while 162 were wounded.

Wreaths were also laid by a delegation of families of defenders killed in the operation, wartime commanders of units who took part in it, representatives of Homeland War associations, and a delegation of cities and municipalities.

Numerous government members, MPs and veterans’ associations are attending the ceremony marking the Operation Flash anniversary.

The 1 May 1995 operation also liberated Okucani, the centre of the enemy rebellion at the time and of terrorist attacks by the Greater Serbia aggressors in western Slavonia.

Due to the military defeat in Operation Flash, Serb rebels shelled the centre of Zagreb on 2 May 1995, killing seven and wounding 200 people.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced the then Serb rebels’ leader Milan Martic to 35 years in prison for war crimes committed in that period, including the command for the attack on Zagreb.

Flash preceded Operation Storm, which was launched on 5 August 1995 and restored the state and legal order throughout Croatia, except in eastern Slavonia.

The two operations and several subsequent victories by the Croatian Army paved the way for the peaceful reintegration of the Danube River Region (eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem), which began on 15 January 1996 and was completed on 15 January 1998, when it was restored as part of Croatia.