President Ivo Josipovic said on Friday that those Croatian war veterans who had honourably taken part in the defence of the country had no reason to fear.
"I won't allow any honorable Croatian veteran to be persecuted," he said awarding medals to those who had taken part in the liberation of the Peruca area in southern Croatia.
Josipovic, who is also the military commander-in-chief, laid a wreath and lit a candle at a monument to Ante Buljan, a Croatian soldier killed in the liberation of Peruca 18 years ago.
This was the first time that the president of the republic attended a commemoration of the Peruca liberation operation, which the Croatian army carried out on 28 January 1993, it was said. The army liberated 240 square kilometres and prevented water from spilling from the Peruca reservoir after Serb forces planted and activated 30 tonnes of explosive in the dam of the hydro-electric power plant. Despite the blast, the dam did not break.
