President’s Delegate Marijan Mareković Attends Ceremony Marking 34th Anniversary of Operation Plitvice, Honouring Croatian Defender Josip Jović
Marijan Mareković, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Homeland War Veterans and delegate of President and Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanović, today attended a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of Operation Plitvice and honouring police officer Josip Jović, the first Croatian defender killed in the Homeland War.
Adviser to the President of the Republic for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković laid a wreath on behalf of the President of the Republic and lit a candle at the Josip Jović Memorial at Plitvice Lakes. As the first casualty of the Homeland War, Josip Jović was killed on Easter, on the 31st of March 1991.
Alongside the President’s delegate, Slavko Butorac, wartime commander of the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit, and Brigadier General Željko Ljubas, Commander of the Command-Operational Centre of the Croatian Armed Forces, also attended the wreath-laying ceremony. At the monument to the first victim of the Homeland War, wreaths were laid and candles lit by Josip Jović’s family, participants of Operation “Plitvice,” and members of associations stemming from the Homeland War, including the Association of Wartime Members of the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit ’90, the Tigar 90/91 Rakitje Association, the PJP Kumrovec 90 Association, the Homeland War Special Police Association, the First Croatian Police Officers Association, and the SJP Grom Karlovac Association. Representatives of the Croatian Parliament, the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and county officials were also present.
As part of the commemorative programme, new members of the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit received Special Police emblems.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas