President of the Republic Attends 7th Croatian Home Guard Regiment Zadar 30th Anniversary Ceremony

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović paid tribute to the fallen defenders of the 7^th Croatian Home Guard Regiment Zadar by laying a wreath and lighting a candle at the central cross in the city cemetery of Zadar.

President Milanović also attended a formal session held on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the formation of the 7^th Croatian Home Guard Regiment Zadar, where a documentary film about the 7^th Regiment, by director Dinko Denona and screenplay collaborator Danijel Kotlar, was shown.

“I congratulate your glorious unit on its anniversary. Do not have any doubts about its name for it is associated with fierce, brave and tough fighters. You know who you are and you know how much you gave. This can be measured. We all die twice, first when we pass away, and the second time when we are snatched from remembrance by oblivion, when we are forgotten by everyone,” President Milanović said in his address at the formal session.

Commenting on the documentary film about the 7^th Regiment, the President said that thanks to the film we will never forget those who laid down their lives. “This beautiful film snatches from oblivion, from the chill of non-existence. These photographs of young men, their eyes that emanate history – I have never seen anything so alive, so beautiful and so impressive. Love, fear and death determine, limit and ultimately define us. There is no cure for that, but all human hopes are aimed at ridding ourselves of oblivion,” said President Milanović.

“There are people in this film who died and gave their lives in Croatia, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And this people, the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should be snatched from oblivion and political non-existence. These people fought in BiH for a reason. They did not seek to annex, dishonour and take its name and identity, but to watch Croatia’s back and ensure it peace and security. This is being torn apart today in BiH, along with the Dayton Agreement,” the President said. President Milanović added that the Dayton Agreement would never have been signed if “the boots of the Croatian soldiers had not forced the enemy to surrender and sit down at the negotiating table,” of which he said the members of the 7^th Regiment should be particularly proud and they should mention it without any inhibitions, fear or unease.

More than five thousand defenders of Zadar and the surrounding area passed through the ranks of the 7^th Croatian Home Guard Regiment, which was formed on today’s date in 1992 and immediately deployed to the front lines of Velebit Mountain. In Operation Maslenica, the 7^th Croatian Home Guard Regiment fought on the entire front line and participated in the operation shoulder-to-shoulder with other Croatian Army units, thus becoming the first Croatian Home Guard unit to take part in combat operations in the Homeland War.

Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković was alongside President Milanović at the 7^th Croatian Home Guard Regiment Zadar 30^th anniversary ceremony.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan