A large number of mayors, members of parliament and politicians arrived in the town of Knin, in Dalmatian hinterland, on Friday morning for the central celebration of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and War Veterans Day and the 27th anniversary of Operation Storm.

Knin Mayor Marijo Cacic told reporters that he could still feel the same excitement as in 1995 when Knin was liberated and the war ended.

“I feel festive today. Twenty-seven years ago my family and I were in Zadar, having been expelled from Knin. It was a great thing for us to return home… It was the beginning of a new life,” Cacic said.

Sibenik-Knin County Prefect Marko Jelic said the atmosphere at the Knin celebration had become rather formal, comparing it to the atmosphere of seven years ago, when around 100,000 people gathered in Knin. He added that in that context one should be aware of the fact that war veterans were now older and that it was not as simple for them to travel.

“On the other hand, this is also due to disagreements among ourselves. We should be showing unity because we would not have Croatia today if we had not been united,” Jelic said.

Most party MP Miro Bulj, a member of Croatian forces during the 1991-95 war, too, called for unity, describing separate wreath-laying ceremonies by state officials in Knin as “a disgrace.”

Asked to comment on the fact that war veterans were not allowed into the central square in Knin, where today’s commemoration was taking place, he said that that, too, was a disgrace and that he did not know why senior state officials were afraid to let those deserving most gratitude attend the event.

Most party leader and MP Bozo Petrov said hot weather was probably the reason why there were fewer people at today’s ceremony in Knin than in previous years, but that he would like everyone in Croatia to understand that today was not just a non-working day.

“Today we celebrate our freedom and the victory won in the 1991-95 war, the moment when Croatia was united. We should pass that on to the next generations in a dignified way,” he said.

Split Mayor Ivica Puljak, who was in the company of Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic, said he was in Knin to remember with pride what Croatian defenders had done for the country’s freedom, as well as remember those who had given their lives for peace and freedom.

Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava attending the celebration in Knin too.

DP party MP and war veteran Stipo Mlinaric said the Croatian army had defeated the Serb army and the criminal SDS party in the war, and that it had not fought against the Serb people.

He said that 80 party of Croatian defenders, former prison camp inmates and disabled veterans, were humiliated because in the past two years they could not enter the venue of the central ceremony in Knin without accreditation.

“(The ceremony in) Knin has been neutralised as a symbol of freedom and has turned into a social event attended by politicians,” Mlinaric said.