On 15 April the trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Gotovina to 24 years in prison and Markac to 18 years in prison for crimes their troops committed during the 1995 Operation Storm when the Croatian forces liberated southern and central Croatian areas from rebel Serbs.

Addressing the rally, the head of the Croatian World Congress in Germany, Mijo Maric said that only one civilian was killed in the operation under Gotovina's command, and added that the Croats refuted allegations from the Hague-based tribunal.

Michaela Koller, a German human rights activist, said that it was necessary to prosecute all war crimes but also to make a distinction between the aggressor and the victim whose territory had been occupied.

Koller said that Croatia had been very co-operative with the ICTY, expressing hope that the historical truth would come to light.

Zvonimir Separovic, a former Croatian foreign and justice minister, said in his speech that the ICTY judgement in the Gotovina and Markac case was "superficial, unlawful and unacceptable".

Marko Miljanic, the wartime commander of troops defending the southern Croatian village of Skabrnja, criticised the ICTY for failing to add war crimes Ratko Mladic's troops committed in Croatia, including the Skabrnja atrocities, to the Mladic indictment.

When Croatian Serbs rebelled in the Croatian Homeland Defence War, Skabrnja was attacked by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary forces who committed the massacre, killing tens of prisoners of war and villagers when they entered that village on 18 November 1991. Their commander was Ratko Mladic, who was recently arrested in Serbia and transferred to The Hague awaiting the beginning of his trial for genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.