"I am absolutely proud of having been a participant in that operation and if I found myself again in such a situation, I would do the same," Jarnjak told Croatian Television.

He was commenting on the final submission by the prosecution in the case of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak, charged with war crimes committed during and in the aftermath of Operation Storm, launched to retake areas held by Serb rebels.

The submission describes in detail how the prosecution sees the role of other members of the so-called joint criminal enterprise. After Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Defence Minister Gojko Susak, both deceased, the prosecution identifies the then Interior Minister Ivan Jarnjak as the third most responsible person, followed by the then Reconstruction Minister Jure Radic.

The prosecutor's office asked the trial chamber in charge of the case to find the three generals guilty of war crimes committed during and in the aftermath of Operation Storm and to sentence them to between 17 and 27 years in prison.