Gotovina said he was happy to be here. "This is our joint victory... We won. This is the finishing touch. The war belongs to the past, let's turn to the future together."

He thanked the institutions of the Croatian state that supported him and Markac while they were detained in The Hague.

"I'm grateful to the president of the republic, the institution of the president of the republic, the prime minister, the minister of defence, the minister of justice and in particular, through the foreign ministry, to the Croatian Embassy in The Hague, which was with us all this time. The future is ahead of us, the future is in our hands and we are all together. Thank you and good luck," General Gotovina said, while citizens booed as he thanked the president and prime minister.

General Markac too thanked everyone who was by their side "when it was the hardest."

"I always carried my homeland in my heart and the homeland is all of you. I knew I wasn't alone and this made it much easier. I knew there was no joint criminal enterprise and that the Croatian army and the Croatian police honourably defended their country. I'm happy that in the future, any Croat and their heirs anywhere in the world will say - we have the Croatian homeland and we liberated it without any stain. May all well-meaning people live in it as well as those who come and want to live in it and who wish Croatia well."

Markac said Croatia won a beautiful victory in the 1990s war, one "for the world annals of military victories," a victory that would be studied without any stain from now on.

"Croatia is free, Croatia created an honourable force, a Croatian armed force which defeated those who attacked it and created its own freedom... May the Croatian people and the Croatian homeland live for ever," said Markac.

The citizens who welcomed the generals cheered and carried banners. After the speeches in Ban Jelacic Square, the two generals went to the Zagreb Cathedral to attend mass. Tonight, they will be received by President Ivo Josipovic.