The organisations issued separate statements on Tuesday, urging the police to stop "physical assaults on Croatian defenders and disabled war veterans" and saying that such actions "only cause disunity among the Croatian people."
One of the organisations, which gathers retired army generals, called on the authorities to find out who had torn up a poster of General Ante Gotovina outside HVIDRA headquarters, stressing that Gotovina, indicted by the Hague war crimes tribunal, was a hero of the 1991-1995 Homeland Defence War and that his alleged responsibility for war crimes was yet to be proved in court.
Commenting on a police statement, which said that the raid was launched following an announcement that a video recording of protected testimony given before the tribunal by President Stjepan Mesic would be shown at HVIDRA headquarters, the association of retired army generals said that Mesic's testimony was no secret and that it was available on the Internet.