Defence Minister Mario Banozic said on Saturday that Croatia's procurement of multipurpose fighter jets deterred potential aggressors and that with such equipment, Croatia could no longer be attacked.

He was speaking in Vinkovci at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the 109th Vinkovci Brigade, which he attended as the prime minister’s envoy.

Banozic said Croatian defenders managed to defeat the then Yugoslav People’s Army “thanks to the huge will and desire to defend their birthplace and the young Croatian state.”

“Today the Croatian Army and the Croatian soldier are equipped with gear you could have only dreamed of. We said many times after the Second World War that there would be no more war, but there was a war, a war for freedom. Today we are equipping ourselves to deter the enemy from the Croatian state,” the minister said.

The envoy of the president and supreme commander of the Armed Forces, retired general Ivan Kapular, said today’s anniversary was an opportunity to remember 1991, the heroism of Croatian defenders and the Croatian people’s unity.

The parliament speaker’s envoy, MP Josip Saric, said the 1991-95 Homeland War must be constantly talked about and that young generations must know who were the people who risked their lives to defend the young Croatian state.

The first commander of the 109th Vinkovci Brigade, retired colonel Ivan Petrinovic, said that unit was the first reserve brigade established in Croatia, with 1,800 members. He recalled that 202 were killed and more than 950 wounded in the Homeland War.