Extending his greetings on this occasion at a ceremony in the police academy, the Minister of the Interior, Tomislav Karamarko, recalled that first members of the Alfa unit voluntarily gathered to set up the unit immediately after the declaration of Croatia's independence and when the country's destiny seemed uncertain.
Alfa members knew that they belonged to a community that had never been an aggressor and that had always defended itself, the minister said.
He recalled that during the Homeland Defence War, Croatian soldiers, led by the first Croatian president Franjo Tudjman defended their country.
The first wartime Alfa commander Vladimir Faber, who currently serves as an Interior Ministry state secretary, said that the Alfa fighters fought for their own dignity and for a free Croatia, a country "civilised and law-based", Faber said.
A wartime interior minister, Ivan Jarnjak, recalled in his speech the role of the wartime commander of the special police, General Mladen Markac, as well the role of General Ante Gotovina.
The two generals were found guilty of war crimes by the UN tribunal of the Hague pending appeal.
The association of the Alfa crack unit, that is the organiser of today's commemorative events in Zagreb, awarded special commemorative charters to Karamarko, another wartime interior minister Ivan Vekic, wartime commanders of the unit and to generals Markac and Gotovina.
Asked to comment on the charters of gratitude given to the two generals, Karamarko said that Markac and Gotovina had not received final convictions for war crimes and that the celebrations were organised by the said association and not by the Ministry of the Interior.
"The charters have nothing to do with Croatia's good cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and I see no problem in that," he said.