A special session was held in Grude, where HZ HB was founded, and wreaths were laid and candles lit at monuments to defenders throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as at the grave of the first HZ HB President, Mate Boban.
One of the founders, professor Jozo Maric, said at the session he was pleased with the Hague war crimes tribunal's acquittal of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac. He said the freedom of all Croats would be complete when all unjustly tried and convicted Croatian generals were in their homes.
HZ HB was founded in response to the Serbian military aggression in Bosnia and Croatia after the occupation and destruction of Vukovar, the association of HZ HB Croatian Defence Council volunteers and veterans said in a statement.
"Today we remember (HZ HB) as a symbol of the Croatian people's determination to win the rights and the status it deserves as one of the constituent peoples in a multiethnic state," the association said.