President Milanović in Rijeka: I Will Mark 25th Anniversary of Operation Storm at Knin Fortress Together with Wartime Commanders
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated in the programme of ‘Summer Law School: Diplomacy and Law 2020’ at the University of Rijeka Faculty of Law, where he also delivered a lecture to students.
After his lecture, the President took questions from the press and once again commented on the issue of the autonomic functioning of the crisis management team of the National Civil Protection Directorate. “We live in a state of emergency for which no one has given their approval. (Prime Minister) Plenković is not the problem, but he must understand that in a democracy things do not function as they do in an authoritarian political party,” the President emphasized. Journalists also asked President Milanović to comment on the Prime Minister’s claim, who criticized the President’s views by saying that “the President is bored.” “He did not criticize me, but the function. He was referring to the nature of the job and, as far as I understood it, it’s not my fault,” President Milanović said, inter alia.
President Milanović announced that he will mark the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm at Knin Fortress together with wartime commanders, whom he would also decorate on that occasion. “In the morning of 4 August, I will meet veterans from the First Croatian Police Officers unit and in the evening of that day I will confer medals and promotions upon Croatian Army service-people. I will also confer medals upon the brigades of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) who participated in Operation Storm under the command of the Croatian Army and whose members died to liberate Croatian soil,” the President of the Republic announced.
“Our triumph in Operation Storm is stainless, pure and heroic, and the killing of elderly villagers in Grubori was barbaric,” President Milanović asserted, commenting on the announced possible connection between the celebration in Knin and the commemoration to be held for Serb civilian victims in the village of Grubori, who were killed in the aftermath of Operation Storm.
“The victims of Grubori should be remembered on the day when the murders took place. The elderly were killed in a cowardly and barbaric manner – that was banditry. The victory of the guards brigades and other units in Operation Storm is stainless, pure and heroic. Croatia has no complexes and it need not bow its head in shame,” said the Croatian President, who concluded that he would “probably attend the commemoration on the anniversary of the killings in Grubori.”
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas