27th anniversary of "Operation Storm": Holiday in Croatia, day of memorial services in Serbia

Photo: Tanjug/Vladimir Dimitrijevic

The anniversary of the military-police "Operation Storm," during which the largest exodus of Serbs since the Second World War happened in early August 1995, will this year once again be marked as a holiday in Croatia - as "Day of Victory and Homeland Gratitude and Veterans' Day" - while in Serbia that crime that went unpunished will be marked with a commemorative gathering in Novi Sad.

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As President Aleksandar Vucic announced, the anniversary of this Croatian military-police action will be marked in Novi Sad, on Freedom Square, starting at 8 pm this evening.

Croatia traditionally organizes the central celermony in Knin, where President Zoran Milanovic will host a reception for war commanders today. On that occasion, Milanovic will present decorations, medals and promote some members of the Croatian army, his office has announced.

The precise protocol for the anniversary to be held in Knin has not yet been published, and for the first time this year, several civil sector associations held a half-hour anti-war event on Wednesday in Zagreb in memory of the killed and expelled Serbs during and after this military-police action.

According to the data of Serbia's Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, during Croatia's military-police "Operation Storm" more than 1,700 Serbs were killed and went missing, and more than 250,000 were expelled from their homes.

While for the Croats "Operation Storm" is a reason for celebration, for the Serbs it is the most massive and one of the cruelest instances of ethnic cleansing that happened during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

The attacks began on August 4, 1995 with the offensive of the Croatian army and police and units of the Croatian Defense Council in the territory of the then Republic of Serb Krajina, i.e. in Banija, Kordun, Lika and northern Dalmatia, despite the fact that the area was under protection of the United Nations.

While columns of refugees in cars, trucks, tractors and other agricultural vehicles were moving into Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Croatian army entered the abandoned Knin, where on August 5 they raised the Croatian flag. About 130,000 members of the armed forces from the Croatian side took part in the operation.

The Hague Tribunal sentenced Croatian general Ante Gotovina to 24 years in prison for the crimes against Serbs committed during "Operation Storm," but he was released in November 2012.

Along with Gotovina, Croatian generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak were tried at the Hague Tribunal for persecution, deportations, murders, crimes against humanity, looting of property, violations of laws and customs of war. Cermak was acquitted in the first instance, while Markac was sentenced to 18 years in prison. However, the Appeals Chamber overturned that verdict and acquitted him as well.

Due to the war crimes committed during operations "Flash" and "Storm" the war crimes tribunal in The Hague was preparing an indictment against Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, who died in 1999.

In April 2001, The Hague investigators interrogated the former chief of the general staff of the Croatian army, Petar Stipetic, but after the investigation, he was cleared of suspicion regarding the crimes committed during operations "Medak Pocket," "Flash," and "Storm."

In the 25 years since "Operation Storm" the Croatian judiciary issued three indictments for war crimes committed against the Krajina Serbs, against a total of seven members of the Croatian military and police units. The trials resulted in two guilty verdicts, one of which is final.

In Croatia, this anniversary will be marked in the shadow of the first indictment issued by Serbia against Croatian pilots who bombed a column of Serb refugees on the Petrovac Road.

The indictment accuses the Croatian pilots of committing crimes against Serb civilians near Bosanski Petrovac and in Svodna, near Novi Grad.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)