"We're going, but we don't even know where to": Poignant memories of Serbs expelled during "Operation Storm"

Photo: RINA

28 years ago, the saddest convoy recorded in history in the second half of the last century happened to Serb villages and towns in Croatia. More than 200,000 Serbs from Krajina lost their homes, future, but turning towards Serbia hoping that it would accept them, reports RINA.

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In 1995, Rade Petrovic and his family fled from Banija in Croatia to Cacak in Serbia - a journey that lasted thirteen days. He built a new home in the Atenica settlement, but the very word "storm" creates a clear image for this man of leaving his home and of everything he survived during the thirteen-day journey.

"The hardest thing was that a person is leaving, but not knowing where they are going and what awaits them. When we were supposed to leave for Serbia, walk, not offer any resistance and cut the road, everything was uncertain," Rade Petrovic said.

With his own hands, Rade built a new home and sent his children to school. He says that like every new beginning, it was horribly difficult at first, and each August brings with it ugly memories, but he was saved by the fact that he was a craftsman.

"If I didn't have a trade, it would be bad, I don't know if I would be able to buy a plot of land and create a roof over my head (in Serbia). These are images that never go away and carry a clear message. A man must not trust anyone, he must be himself, have his own stance and be what he imagines, otherwise, there is no belief," stressed Rade.

Nevertheless, regardless of the bad memories, these people survived, found a new home. They saw their children get married and lived to see their grandchildren.

Because of the troubles, they had to leave their ancestral homeland, their Banija and Kordun, and come to their motherland and a new homeland in a convoy where there was neither safety nor happiness, and some unfortunately stayed on that road forever, while others today try to remember or forget that hellish August 1995, but they will not forget it, because they are obligated to that by their family and national history," said Gvozden Otasevic, a Politika journalist and war correspondent.

A similar fate befell many who found their new home in Cacak, central Serbia. Mara Kragulj is just one of them, who spent 16 sleepless days in a tractor trailer fearing for her life and that of her children.

"For a full five years we fought to save our homes, but in one night we had to give them up in order to save our very lives, catching the last tractor trailer leaving the area. Many people looked for their place under the sun all over Serbia after 'Operation Storm," but we are all still troubled by only one question to which we have not received an answer to this day," said Mara.

Over 200,000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia during the military onslaught in early August 1995, known as "Operation Storm." Over 2,000 Serbs were killed or are still listed as missing, and the Serb Republic of Krajina (RSK) ceased to exist.

(Telegraf.rs)