The ceremony was attended by the President of the Republic and the Supreme Commander of the Croatian Armed Forces, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovi\u0107, the Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovi\u0107, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Josip Leko, the Deputy Defence Minister, Vi\u0161nja Tafra, the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, General Drago Lovri\u0107, General Police Director, Vlado Domini\u0107 and other senior military and civilian officials, as well defenders and the family members of the fallen defenders.
The ceremony commenced with a parade of the flags of the units carrying out the Operation, followed by the commemorative service featuring the performance by the \u201cSveti Juraj\u201c\u00a0 Ensemble of the Croatian Navy, the reading out of the roll of honour for the fallen and missing Croatian defenders and the observed minute of silence for them. The delegations laid wreaths at the Central Cross in the Croatian War Veterans Memorial Park at the Oku\u010dani graveyard.
The President of the Republic as Supreme Commander expressed pride and gratitude to all Croatian defenders and in particular to those fallen in the Operation Lightning, as well as to the disabled defenders, the families of the fallen members and of the civilian victims of the Homeland War. The President called on to togetherness, which led the Croatian Army to victory in the operations\u00a0 \u201cLightning\u201c and \u201cStorm\u201c, liberating the country, that has eventually become both NATO and the EU member.\u00a0
The Chairman of the Croatian Parliament, Josip Leko stressed that 20 years on the Operation Lightning, the liberating campaign for western Slavonia, gains importance. \u201cThe commemoration of the decisive operations liberating operations is focussed on peace buildng, on democratic values, human rights and freedoms\u201c.
Deputy Defence Ministry, Vi\u0161nja Tafra said the anniversary was the occasion to commemorate the fallen defenders with dignity, and recalled the heroic pilot Rudolf Pere\u0161in, whose aircraft was shot down in the Operation.\u00a0 Mrs Tafra extended deep gratitude to all the participants.
The Chief of the General Staff, General Drago Lovri\u0107 said that the Operation launched 20 years earlier demonstrated the strength of the Croatian Army. \u201cCroatian soldiers are victorious soldiers, who will overcome any obstacles to defend the national interests\u201c.
The Holy Mass for the fallen defenders and civilian victims of the Homeland War was served by the Bishop of Po\u017eega, msgr Antun \u0160kvor\u010devi\u0107 , who in his homily honoured the patriotic and daring citizens of Croatia.
Lieutenant Colonel Mile Valenti\u0107,\u00a0 Deputy Commander of the Guards Mechanised Brigade of the Croatian Army and a participant of the Operation himself said he was proud to have taken part side by side with his fellow combatants. \u201cWe succeded in liberating the area within a short time period, were highly motivated and determined to liberate our homeland; it is a magnificient impression\u201c.
The Croatian Air Force’s Aerobatic Group “Wings of Storm” performed a flying programme to honour the victory in the Operation. It was the first-time performance for four new members of the Group , in the tenth anniversary of its establishment.
The commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Operation was concluded by the ceremonial programme by the Honorary Battalion of the Croatian Armed Forces; an exercise\u00a0 demonstration by the Military Police Regiment with military working dogs and martial arts skills demonstration by the Special Forces Command.\u00a0 The visitors were also able to see a Static Display of the weapons, and combat and non-combat assets and equipment used by the various units of the Croatian Armed Forces set for the occasion.<\/p>\n[nggallery id=1745]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 20th Anniversary of the Police and Military Operation \u201cLightning\u201c was commemorated in Oku\u010dani on\u00a0 1 May 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4698,"featured_media":36410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n