Aleksandar Jevtic, an ethnic Serb from the eastern town of Vukovar, Milos Orelj, a Serb Orthodox priest from Dreznica, and Mato Arlovic, a former member of Parliament, were awarded the Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the image of Katarina Zrinska.
Jevtic was proposed for the award by the association of jurists in Vukovar with the explanation that after being arrested by Serb forces in Vukovar and taken to a camp in Stajicevo, Serbia, in November 1991, Jevtic was recognised by a Serb commander who told him to separate Serbs from other detained people in the camp. Risking his own life, Jevtic selected some of the imprisoned Croatian soldiers, saying that they were Serbs, after which they were released from the camp. One of the rescued Croatians was Stanko Zadro, a brother of Blago Zadro, a Croatian army commander who was killed while defending Vukovar.
After the award-giving ceremony, Jevtic said that the award meant much to him, adding that when he was rescuing the Croatian prisoners 18 years ago he was not thinking of the consequences of his act.
"I helped some people, but many remained there and they could not be helped," Jevtic told reporters.
A member of the association of jurists from Vukovar, Predrag Fred Matic, said that what Jevtic had done in the night between 20 and 21 November 1991, when Vukovar fell into the hands of Serb rebels supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), was "a great deed" that could have cost him his life.
Stanko Zadro said that Jevtic's conduct showed that "there are good people also in bad times", and added that Jevtic's decoration was good "both to the Serb and the Croatian people".
Milos Orelj was the only Orthodox priest in Dreznica, near Ogulin (90 kilometres southwest of Zagreb), during the 1991-1995 Homeland War.
"I thank God for letting me feel that at the time I was a priest to everybody and not just to the Orthodox faithful," Orelj told reporters.