The Croatian officials again refuted allegations that it was a criminal operation organised with an aim to expel Serbs.
President Stjepan Mesic, Sabor Speaker Vladimir Seks and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader agree that the magnificence and purity of the operation cannot be overshadowed by events which happened in the wake of the Storm and which the Croatian government, they stress, is tackling.
President Mesic, whose speech was booed by the audience at the ceremony, said that the path towards the future implies that it is necessary to remove all doubts and acknowledge that in the war there were some who had not fought for Croatia but for their own interests and who destroyed also what should not have been destroyed.
It is such individuals who bring into question the magnificence and purity of the Homeland Defence War, Mesic said while the gathered chanted "Ante, Ante!" and "Franjo, Franjo!" referring to the fugitive general Ante Gotovina and the first Croatian President, the late Franjo Tudjman.
In this context, Mesic said that those who violated rules of waging wars and committed crimes against humanity must be held responsible.
Mesic told those who were staging protests that no protest would stop Croatia on its safe path and that nobody has the right not to implement Croatian laws as Croatia is at stake and not this or that individual, the president said.
He urged the unity about the key issues and appealed for the construction of a stable, democratic and tolerant state.
Croatia is enough fair and brave to acknowledge what was wrong in its past and to seek forgiveness from those who were exposed to the evil in its name, Mesic said.
Mesic held a speech at the outdoor playing grounds in the town of Knin, whose liberation on 5 August 1995 carried special significance because since the summer of 1990 this town had been the centre and symbol of the rebellion of local Serbs.
The parliament's chairman Vladimir Seks said that the then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his clique which Seks described as a criminal group deluded a great number of Serbs and it is they who are responsible for the exodus of Serbs and for encouraging local Serbs to resist their own country only to let them down later. That's why the Croatian government is not responsible but those who prepared Croatian Serbs to leave Croatia in a planned manner, Seks said.
The Sabor Speaker stressed the Storm ended a four-year Serb insurgency and crushed the self-proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina which he branded as a criminal and terrorist parastate.
The centre of the reign of terror was in Knin, Seks said bringing applause from the audience.
He went on to say that incidents that happened in the wake of the Storm out of revenge or for criminal purposes deserved to be condemned and could not be justified. But this cannot mar the purity of Storm and the fact that the operation was justified, he said.
Seks as well as Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that nobody should be allowed to distort the truth about the Homeland Defence War and magnificence of the 1995 Flash and Storm operations.
Sanader said that Storm was a splendid operation planned with the purpose of liberating the Croatian territory, and this is the only truth and this is what those coming back know.
The premier called for the separation of Storm from tragic events, criminal acts and injustice done against Croatian Serbs before the legal order was fully established.
The Croatian state is solving those incidents and Zagreb extends a hand of reconciliation so as to establish new relations in the area, Sanader said.
All the tree top officials paid tribute to the late Franjo Tudjman, the first Croatian President who was at the helm of Croatia in 1990s.
During the ceremony at the playing grounds, 12 formations of Croatian Armed Forces units passed in review. After that about 40 planes of the Croatian Air Force performed flight manoeuvres above Knin.
At the start of today's ceremony, the state delegations held wreath-laying ceremonies in the town's cemetery in commemoration of Croatian soldiers who died during the Homeland Defence War.
A big Croatian flag was then hoisted at the fortress at the hill overlooking this Croatian town, which was established in the Middle Ages.
At noon, a requiem mass in memory of those who gave their lives for the homeland was said by the Croatian Military Bishop, Juraj Jezerinac, in the local St Anthony's Church.
Today, the local polytechnic, named after the father of the Croatian literature, Marko Marulic, was opened in Knin.
The day-long festivities will end in the evening with concerts of popular music and a display of fireworks.