11 years after Operation Storm

11 years after Operation Storm

Prior to this, a drige honouring the victims who died during the military action will take place. Aside from family members, Serbian President Boris Tadić will also attend the ceremony.  In Croatia, August 5th is a national holiday celebrated as The Day of Victory and National Thanksgiving to Operation Storm, which had effectively returned the last segemnts of territory held by Serb forces under Croatian control. Starting four years ago, the date has also been celebrated as the Day of Croatian Armed Forces.

Operation Storm started on August 4th 1995 with an offensice of the Croatian Army, police forces and Croatian defence council of Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia (the area od the former self-proclaimed Republic of Srpska Krajina). The following day, the Croatian Army entered the almost desrted stronghold Knin and raised the Croatian national flag.

Almost the entire population of Serbia had fled from the area that was embraced by the Croatian offensive. According to unofficial data, since precise official records are still missing, 1805 people have gone missing in Operation Storm, while the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights claims that 700 civilians were killed during the military action.

The Documentation and Information Centre Veritas has recorded 1960 names of Serbs that were killed or had gone missing during the operation, 1205 of which are civilians, 522 women and 12 children.

Koštunica: Ways to reducing injustice

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica issued a statement to mark the occasion and said that „the Serbian people were commemorating thousands of innocent people who were killed and hundreds of thousands who were exiled, uprooted and forced to flee in a matter of days from homes in which they had lived for centuries“.

„When an entire people is forced out of its home soil under threat of eradication, it is quite clear that the consequwnces of such a big tragedy can never be made right. We have to search for ways to reduce this injustice and, hece, our duty today is to continuously work on returning as many exiles back to their homes and to make sure they are provided with security and human rights on their home soil“, Koštunica said.