The head of the organisation, Bozo Drmic, said that VIDDR was completely apolitical and that no political group was behind them.
"We are fighting for people who fought heroically in the Homeland Defence War to make it possible for them to live decent lives," Drmic told reporters after the founding session.
He said that the organisation was established in response to other war veterans' organisations that were subject to political influence.
"We are not yet another organisation that wants a rift among war veterans' organisations, but we want to represent and protect true war veterans who fought on the battlefield with guns in their hands," Drmic said.
Drmic assessed the number of war veterans at 100,000, insisting that the figure of about 570,000 persons with war veteran status was unrealistic.
Commenting on indictments issued against Croatian army officers by the Hague war crimes tribunal, Drmic said that they were legalists, but that they considered the Hague tribunal a political court.