The protest rally was organised by the Vukovar coordinating body of Homeland War associations. Among those in attendance were Deputy Prime Minister Petar Cobankovic, Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic, Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko and Veterans Minister Tomislav Ivic. The protesters booed Karamarko and Ivic.

The Serbian indictments against Croatian veterans are aimed at proving that they were the ones who committed the crime, that defending one's home, family, town and Homeland was a crime, and that Croatia was created on crime, said Ivan Kovacic, president of the coordinating body.

"However, no one is mentioning the excessive targeting of Vukovar, where thousands of shells used to fall every day. That, of course, was no crime, neither were the killings of many civilians and defenders of Vukovar," Kovacic said.

He questioned the Amnesty Act, which he said had enabled many participants in the rebellion against Croatia to get jobs and pensions "even though they were fighting against that very Croatia." In this context, he mentioned an MP of the Independent Democratic Serb Party, Vojislav Stanimirovic.

The president of Vukovar's association of former Serb-run concentration camp inmates, Zdravko Komsic, criticised the State Prosecutor's Office for failing to collect evidence on the killing of about 5,000 Vukovar residents in the Serbian military aggression on the town in 1991 or on the killing of about 700 inmates detained at the Velepromet facility in Vukovar.

"Unfortunately, the State Prosecutor's Office, under pressure from various associations and world power-wielders, is tirelessly collecting evidence and filing or preparing indictments against our friends and fellow fighters Tomislav Mercep, Vladimir Seks, Admiral Davor Domazet Loso, Ivan Vekic," he said.

Komsic said representatives of the state authorities should "bear in mind that Croatia was created on the sacrifice of Croatian veterans and the Croatian people and given to them to run, unburdened by the huge external debt."

The last commander of Vukovar's defence in 1991, Branko Borkovic, said "Operation Vukovar is still under way and the battle for Croatia isn't over yet."

He said that while veterans had been fighting, some were thinking about how to plunder the country, adding that veterans "aren't setting the gallows" but asking that those who transgressed against Croatia and the Croatian people over the past 20 years be held to account.

After the rally, Borkovic told a news conference that Croatia's constitution and laws as well as international law had been breached in the case of Tihomir Purda, a Croatian veteran arrested in Bosnia earlier this month on a warrant issued by Serbia, where he is wanted for war crimes.

The rally was supported by veterans of Varazdin County.