KNIN MARKS VICTORY AND HOMELAND THANKSGIVING DAY

KNIN, Aug 5 (Hina) - A number of events are taking place in the southern Croatian town of Knin today, which celebrates Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and remembers 5 August 1995, when combined Croatian police and army forces liberated the town from the Serb occupation. #L# Earlier in the day, wreaths were laid and Mass was said at the central town cemetery in memory of fallen Croatian soldiers. Delegations of state officials attended a ceremony at which a Croatian flag was hoisted on the Knin fortress. "Thinking about 5 August 1995 brings back joyful feelings about the victorious campaign of Croatian soldiers and the liberation, with few victims, of formerly occupied Croatian areas, however, it also brings back memories of all the victims to whom we should pay due tribute today," Defence Minister Zeljka Antunovic said at the ceremony at the town fortress. The minister believed that despite all the problems Knin would manage to get on its own feet thanks to the initiatives of local authorities and the government's assistance. Vice-Premier Goran Granic said he believed that Knin would benefit from a favourable business environment. Asked by reporters about today's status of Croatian generals who had liberated Knin, Granic said the generals had won the war together with other Croatian soldiers. "They are part of the Croatian society, whether active or not, and their merits as well as the gratitude of citizens will never be taken away from them," he said. Defence Minister Antunovic also attended a ceremony at which army officials handed over to Knin residents the Senjak barracks, located on the way out of the town in the direction of Sinj. The barracks will be remodelled into a housing and business complex. Knin residents were also handed over 10 business offices formerly owned by the Defence Ministry as well as a military storehouse in Strmica. A memorial plaque was unveiled today in a former hospital complex, which during the occupation was an infamous Serb prison. The plaque reads that in the period between 1991 and 1995, a large number of Croatian soldiers, women, children and the elderly were imprisoned and tortured in the prison. The plaque was unveiled by the municipal head of Polaca, Radoslav Bobanovic of the Croatian Society of Former Inmates of Serb Concentration Camps, which initiated the erection of the plaque. (hina) rml sb