About 10,000 people gathered to pay their last respects, including retired general Marko Lukic, the Minister of Veterans' Affairs, Tomislav Ivic, the president of the Croatian Football Federation, Vlatko Markovic, and Brodarac's friend Branko Ljubesic.

In an emotional speech, General Lukic spoke of responsibility for the death of Djuro Brodarac, saying that "the policy of Serbian territorial expansion is achieving its goal through a creeping special warfare."

"What they lost on the battlefield, they gained in their shady post-war games. They have turned hero cities into problem cities, the real Croatian heroes and defenders into prisoners and criminals," Lukic said.

"Not just that they shamefully arrested you, but they put you in a cell at 40 degrees centigrade, knowing that the war has eroded your health. ... The people you created politically are surprised in their cosy offices and leather armchairs what happened to you. ... The humiliation of Djuro Brodarac is the humiliation of the Croatian victory, the humiliation of people of Sisak and Banovina, and the humiliation of all the defenders of Croatia," Lukic said.

Ivic said that Brodarac had fought for a better and happier Croatia. "We should be guided by his dignity and his courage. He was dignified in all his battles, including the last ones," Ivic said. His speech was occasionally interrupted by boos from those gathered.

Djuro Brodarac, the wartime chief of the Sisak-Moslavina County Police Department, was detained, along with his former deputy Vladimir Milankovic and police reservist Drago Bosnjak, on June 21 on the suspicion that they had committed war crimes against Serb civilians in the Sisak and Banovina areas in 1991 and 1992.

While in detention in the eastern city of Osijek, his health worsened and he was taken to the city's Clinical Hospital Centre. During the night between July 12 and 13, owing to respiratory problems, he was put on a respirator. He died at 0825 hours on July 13.