"Without heroes like Blago Zadro, there would be no free Croatia," said Parliament President Vladimir Seks, who spoke at the commemoration held in front of Zadro's memorial bust.
The meeting was also addressed by Deputy Prime Minister and War Veterans Minister Jadranka Kosor, who voiced hope that the law on war veterans rights that the government endorsed yesterday "would return dignity to Croatian veterans" and that it would not be changed ever again.
"The Homeland War was a just, liberation and defence war and we won't allow anyone to revise and falsify that," Kosor said.
The commemoration, organised by the Vukovar county and town branches of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), was also addressed by Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic, and county and town HDZ officials.
Delegations of the parliament, government, the HDZ, the Armed Forces Main Staff, the War Veterans' Ministry and numerous veterans' and war victims' associations laid wreaths at Zadro's monument.
Blago Zadro was one of the founders of the HDZ in Vukovar. The first Croatian president, the late Franjo Tudjman, promoted him posthumously to the rank of major general as the only soldier from Vukovar with that rank.
He was killed in an attack by Serb forces on October 16, 1991 at Vukovar's neighbourhood of Borovo Naselje, where he commanded defence forces.
His remains were exhumed in 1998 from a mass grave at a Vukovar cemetery, together with the remains of 937 other victims.
The main street in Borovo Naselje bears the name of Blago Zadro as does a military school in Zagreb.