The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of War Veterans' and Family Affairs and Inter-Generational Solidarity, the Croatian army, Osijek-Baranja County, and Homeland War associations.
A state secretary at the Interior Ministry, Ivica Buconjic, said that in 1991 Croatia was exposed to an act of aggression by the former Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary units and plans to crush the new state.
Osijek-Baranja County prefect Kresimir Bubalo said he was dissatisfied because the perpetrators of those crimes had not answered for their acts and the fact that "investigations are being launched only against Croats".
The head of the Osijek County police, Vladimir Faber, said that the 39 soldiers killed in Dalj bore witness to the "criminal nature of the great-Serbian idea". He went on to say that "in recent days
attempts have been made on the other (Serbian) side of the border to equate the worst atrocity in modern history, the genocide committed by the great-Serbian aggressor in Srebrenica, with the military and police operation 'Storm'".
Faber described the attempts as lies, adding that the Interior Ministry had dealt with individual incidents and criminal acts committed on the margins of the 1995 operation and would continue doing so in the future.