President Zoran Milanovic on Wednesday participated in a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Kijevo police station, saying that "today's Croatia is well organised and better than it ever was."

“Thirty years ago… a small number of people were both brave and crazy enough and had the heart and hope to embark on something that seemed impossible to most people,” Milanovic said in a address after laying a wreath in front of the local church in Kijevo, a municipality in Sibenik-Knin County.

The President’s Office said in a press release that Milanovic recalled that Kijevo was where “Ratko Mladic began his career and his bloody path.”

Mladic one of the major criminals in the past century

“(Mladic was) one of the major criminals in the past century, maybe not by the number of people who lost their lives because of him and his conduct, but by the way he did it,” said Milanovic.

Recalling 1995, the President said that Croatia was liberated then thanks to the courage as well as the intelligence, thoroughness and determination of the Croatian army and its commanders.

They prepared in these mountains for months to liberate the country. They did it in such a way to prevent casualties as much as possible, and huge casualties were avoided, both ours and the enemy’s. That is little respected in Croatia and even less outside Croatia, he said.

Necessary to admit one’s mistakes

Milanovic said that “things are being misrepresented” and that it is necessary to always admit one’s mistakes, not just in war, not just in the state but in the family, in relationships, friendship and in love but also “to be aware of who you are and where you belong, what you are great for and in what regard you are just an ordinary person.”

The Kijevo police station was established on 28 April 1991 and was the first organised symbol of resistance by the local Croatian population against the pressure and oppression by the then local authorities which sided with the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA).