A march was held in the southern Adriatic city of Split on Saturday, with several thousand people praying for Croatian war veterans, objecting to their prosecution for war crimes, and criticising the government for not protecting them.
"The goal of this march is to show members of parliament that we haven't forgotten that we owe our gratitude for Croatia's freedom to Croatian veterans," said Anita Barisic Muslija, an activist with the "I Love Croatia" association, which organised the march.
The president of the Split-County association of former inmates of Serb-run camps, Petar Gojun, criticised the Veterans' Ministry for passivity.
"There were 1,500 Croat inmates from Dalmatia in Knin's prisons, 6,000 were in Serbian camps, 500 in Montenegro, and no one has been held to account yet," he said, criticising President Ivo Josipovic for praising Croatian Serb official Vojislav Stanimirovic for the peaceful reintegration of the Vukovar area.
"What was Stanimirovic doing before the peaceful reintegration?" he asked.
The participants in the march expressed support to army general Ante Gotovina, who is standing trial before the Hague war crimes tribunal, as well as to war veterans Tihomir Purda and Veljko Maric, who are under arrest.
The march ended with a prayer and the lighting of candles.
