Attending the ceremonies were Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic, Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic's envoy Branko Bacic.
The ceremonies marking the liberation of southern Croatia from the aggression by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbian and Montenegrin troops included a military parade and a troop review as well as a performance by the Croatian Air Force aerobatic display team The Wings of Storm.
According to data from the Homeland War Memorial and Documentation Centre, the operation to liberate southern Croatia consisted of several actions that started in the spring of 1992 and lasted until October that year, resulting in the lifting of the siege of Dubrovnik and liberation of the occupied parts of Croatian territory. More than 240 Croatian soldiers were killed in the operation.
The town of Dubrovnik lived under siege for 240 days, most of that time without electricity of fresh water. The JNA swept through surrounding villages looting houses and razing them to the ground. Villagers fled to Dubrovnik or to the islands, some of the elderly who could not flee were taken off to war camps in Morinj, Montenegro or to Bileca, a town in southeastern Bosnia under Serb control.
During the war in the region, 116 civilians and 430 Croatian soldiers were killed and several hundred were injured. As many as 443 Croats were taken into detention camps, and as many as 33,000 had to flee their homes during the siege and the JNA attacks.