Before the exercise, wreaths were laid and candles lit at a memorial to the unit’s fallen members, with Interior Minister Davor Božinović attending.
“ATJ Lučko was the first organised unit and the first Croatian armed formation which protected the constitutional order, the state leadership, and which earned its wartime fame on all Croatian battlefields,” he said, adding that this elite unit had always been on the front lines and engaged in the toughest operations.
During the 1991-95 Homeland War, more than 350 people were in the unit, 19 were killed and 52 were wounded, the minister said.
He said that in peacetime the unit showed its new equipment every year, such as the best specialist vehicles.
Božinović said the incumbent government had invested considerable funds in the police, including European funds, and that HRK 144 million was invested in the special police alone in the past four years.
Procurement will continue and there are plans to equip ATJ Lučko with three new multipurpose helicopters, he added.
The minister said the government cared a lot about the unit and that its elitism was not fake as the unit was not closed but there to help civilians in various disasters. The helicopters, he added, will be made available to the civil protection system.
“Our special forces do not make only Croatia proud. They have been recognised as members of ATLAS and their colleagues across the EU have a high opinion of them,” said Božinović.
The ATLAS network is an association of the police tactical units of the EU’s 27 member states established following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 upon the initiative of the Police Chiefs Task Force.
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