The Croatian head of state placed the wreath at the monument called 'Mother Dalmatia' and paid tribute to the dead refugees buried at that cemetery.
"On behalf of the Republic of Croatia, the Motherland that does not forget, I pay tribute to all who are buried in this cemetery under the sand of Sinai," Mesic said recalling that about 30,000 Croatian refugees found shelter at Sinai, while fleeing from the Nazi occupying forces during the Second World War.
"A few hundred of them remain here for ever," the president said.
Mesic also recalled that in the last decades the cemetery of Croatian refugees at El Shatt twice experienced "ill-fated destiny of falling into oblivion and being neglected"; first it happened during the Israeli-Arab conflict after which the then Socialist Yugoslavia reconstructed the graveyard, and the second time during the war when the Socialist Federal Yugoslavia broke up.
The Croatian El Shatt cemetery has been restored in line with a decision the Croatian government made in 2003, and the "Motherland will not forget heroes of El Shatt", Mesic said.
Eleven memorial plaques in the cemetery bear the names of 825 people from Croatia who died during their exile in Egypt.
During the performance of the Egyptian hymn, the governor of Suez, Seif El Din Galal placed a wreath on behalf of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
After that Croatian Catholic and Serb Orthodox priests, Tomislav Duka and Marinko Juretic, said prayers.
With this wreath-laying ceremony President Mesic wrapped up his two-day visit to Egypt. Upon his arrival in Cairo on Saturday evening he met with Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Muhammad Nazif for talks.
After the capitulation of Italy, more than 33,000 refugees were evacuated from Dalmatia via the island of Vis to Italy from where allied forces transferred 25,000 Croats to Egypt to save them from starvation.
Croatian refugees lived in tents in five separate camps at a 260-square-kilometre area by the Red Sea for 18 months. During the first four months upon its establishment, the camp was run by the British administration for relief and refugees at the Middle East (MERRA), and on 1 May 1944, the UN organisation for refugees (UNRRA) took over the camp.
In 1946, refugees began returning to their homes.