Croatian PM: No new Storm inquiries

Surprise, Surprise. As per usual the Croats try to portray themselves as whiter then white. How can they deny the charges? it's obvious to the whole world what Croatia's intentions were during operation storm. Croatia can't hope to build bridges with the Serbs until they admit FULLY their war crimes which were many and orchestrated.

pb,

u mean they should fully admit to war crimes much like what serbia has done? world knows who bears the most blame for what happened in the balkans and any admissions and apologies need to come from belgrade first. as for admitting fully what happened, may i remind u that croatia is at least prosecuting those that have violated human rights. the fact that RSK leaders have been found guilty of brutal war crimes seems to escape you and the serbs. or the fact that the RSK leaders ordered evacuation of Krajina prior to Storm? While I dont deny the crimes have been commited and those responsible need to be brought to justice, I dont think the overall picture of what happened needs to be forgotten and why. the world knows this and its why serbs are the least trusted people in the region. there are reasons for this.

Daniel, don't be so naive.Any serious political commentator knows that it wasn't a "good versus evil" issue. Germany always had ambitions to break up Yugoslavia and help it's WWII ally, Croatia. It was convenient for the US population to paint the Serbs as the bad guys and the Croats as the good guys to enable the break up of former Yugoslavia. And just in case you didn't know, the Croats told the Serbs in Krajina that they were going to invade - it was common knowledge. that is why the Serbs were told to leave. There is no contest between 300,000 Croat soldiers and 350,000 Serb civilians. That decision is coming home to roost i.e. the indictment of Croatia's Op Storm creators.

Daniel,

Whatsmore, Croatia had an implicit green light from the US to conduct the operation as ultimately any Serb in Croatia is a problem....remove the serbs and voila!.....remove the problem.

Yes, Milosevic sold out to Tudjman but still does not and would not have changed what happened. Croatia wanted all Serbs out of Croatia full stop..whether they want to live there or not, no Serbs regardless of politics were welcome.....Tudjman wanted an ethnically homogenous state, and he has more or less created it.

The purpose of these comments are for the Croats to buy time and deny the truth. The question for the world is whether we allow this to continue. Only the truth can set you free.

So PB, all of these conspiracies that you are on about, is there a reason for this? As far as I know, Germany is no longer Nazi and I have been there. The only invasion in Krajina was from troops from Belgrade, who were on foreign soil. Ironic that troops left Krajina before the civilians. So much for Belgrade caring for their own people.

Lollee, the only denial of truth is from Belgrade. If they have nothing to hide, then why dont they release the documents they are hiding from world?

As for green light from US, do you know why? Do you know that the Storm operation saved Bihac from being over run by Mladic and from Srebrenica from happening again. Or is it coincidence that the operation ended the war after Milosevic and Bosnian serbs worked out that they no longer can be the bully? think.

For everything there is a reason, a denial of a reason does not mean that it doesnt exist.

First of all, I would like to comment the newspapers in Croatia for printing the information about the war crimes committed during operation storm.
Since I'm not a native of the old Yugoslavia, I'm not sure about what actually occurred.
My question is this, were Croats and Muslims expelled from Serbia or Montenegro? If not, then why were Serbs expelled from Croatia?

Mihail,

Although I dont believe you dont know anything about what happened, let me enlighten you. This is how I see what happened.

Operation Storm happened in 1995, 4 years after war started in which the serbs wanted Krajina to join with Serbia. Now problem was that although heavily serb popul;ated, Krajina was actually majority Croat and Croats were purged from Krajina for 4 years by various paramilitary groups which were lead by a dentist (babic) and another fellow (a butcher I think) Martic. All of this was in name of Greater Serbia. In Bosnia, muslims were purged from Republica Srpska and Kosovo crisis resulted in half a million refugees.

In Krajina, Babic and Martic ordered civilian evacuation of the area, as the croats were launching an attack to regain control. This was after the serbs rejected a Z-4 plan giving them autonomy. The serb troops were the FIRST to leave Krajina, not even protecting their own population. In the whole operation, about 150 had died....now compare that to 1000's in Srebrenica alone for example.

key is to remember that it happened in 1995, not 1991. War was not a result of Operation Storm but a number of things that happened for 4 years before that. Serbs had a chance for something with Z-4 plan, but decided to be unrealistic and lost everything. Even their own RSK prime minister Babic ADMITTED that serbs started the war first. but its tragic that serbs ignore that bit.

Mihail et al. There is no point even reading Daniels posts. He clings for dear life to the Tudjman version of history. Daniel puts the D in HDZ and will denounce any other versions or points of view for page after boring page. Lets just say there was provision in the constitution of SFRY for the disbanding of the Federation but Slovenia and Croatia didn't follow this constitutional path, strife was the result and lots of people did lots of very ugly and unpleasant things to each other. One final thing to note is that of the former SFRY constituent states there are NOW 2 ethnically pure states (and 1 province), 1 state where the ethnicities are grouped into three monoethnic blocks, and then there are the 3 Slav Orthodox States which retain their multiethnic social make-up. Strange that, considering it is the orthodox slav who were the ones demonised in the press for the last 17 years.

Daniel, it's also tragic that the Croatian authorities are also filling your head with propaganda. The simple fact is that Krajina was an has been for hundreds of years, majority Serbian. You can find that fact in any mainstream textbook wherever in the world you may be - apart from Croatia obviously.

«Serbs had a chance for something with Z-4 plan, but decided to be unrealistic and lost everything...»

Daniel, Milosevic was so sure that the world (the UN) would not react and would not intervene in the Bosnian War that he sent troops, paramilitaries, to help with the cleansing of large territories in Croatia and Bosnia. That was Milosevic's major mistake... and when the UN realized that a genocide could happen, they ordered NATO to bomb the Serbs and they lost everything!

Surprise, Surprise. As per usual the Croats try to portray themselves as whiter then white. How can they deny the charges? it's obvious to the whole world what Croatia's intentions were during operation storm. Croatia can't hope to build bridges with the Serbs until they admit FULLY their war crimes which were many and orchestrated.

pb,

u mean they should fully admit to war crimes much like what serbia has done? world knows who bears the most blame for what happened in the balkans and any admissions and apologies need to come from belgrade first. as for admitting fully what happened, may i remind u that croatia is at least prosecuting those that have violated human rights. the fact that RSK leaders have been found guilty of brutal war crimes seems to escape you and the serbs. or the fact that the RSK leaders ordered evacuation of Krajina prior to Storm? While I dont deny the crimes have been commited and those responsible need to be brought to justice, I dont think the overall picture of what happened needs to be forgotten and why. the world knows this and its why serbs are the least trusted people in the region. there are reasons for this.

Daniel, don't be so naive.Any serious political commentator knows that it wasn't a "good versus evil" issue. Germany always had ambitions to break up Yugoslavia and help it's WWII ally, Croatia. It was convenient for the US population to paint the Serbs as the bad guys and the Croats as the good guys to enable the break up of former Yugoslavia. And just in case you didn't know, the Croats told the Serbs in Krajina that they were going to invade - it was common knowledge. that is why the Serbs were told to leave. There is no contest between 300,000 Croat soldiers and 350,000 Serb civilians. That decision is coming home to roost i.e. the indictment of Croatia's Op Storm creators.

Daniel,

Whatsmore, Croatia had an implicit green light from the US to conduct the operation as ultimately any Serb in Croatia is a problem....remove the serbs and voila!.....remove the problem.

Yes, Milosevic sold out to Tudjman but still does not and would not have changed what happened. Croatia wanted all Serbs out of Croatia full stop..whether they want to live there or not, no Serbs regardless of politics were welcome.....Tudjman wanted an ethnically homogenous state, and he has more or less created it.

The purpose of these comments are for the Croats to buy time and deny the truth. The question for the world is whether we allow this to continue. Only the truth can set you free.

So PB, all of these conspiracies that you are on about, is there a reason for this? As far as I know, Germany is no longer Nazi and I have been there. The only invasion in Krajina was from troops from Belgrade, who were on foreign soil. Ironic that troops left Krajina before the civilians. So much for Belgrade caring for their own people.

Lollee, the only denial of truth is from Belgrade. If they have nothing to hide, then why dont they release the documents they are hiding from world?

As for green light from US, do you know why? Do you know that the Storm operation saved Bihac from being over run by Mladic and from Srebrenica from happening again. Or is it coincidence that the operation ended the war after Milosevic and Bosnian serbs worked out that they no longer can be the bully? think.

For everything there is a reason, a denial of a reason does not mean that it doesnt exist.

First of all, I would like to comment the newspapers in Croatia for printing the information about the war crimes committed during operation storm.
Since I'm not a native of the old Yugoslavia, I'm not sure about what actually occurred.
My question is this, were Croats and Muslims expelled from Serbia or Montenegro? If not, then why were Serbs expelled from Croatia?

Mihail,

Although I dont believe you dont know anything about what happened, let me enlighten you. This is how I see what happened.

Operation Storm happened in 1995, 4 years after war started in which the serbs wanted Krajina to join with Serbia. Now problem was that although heavily serb popul;ated, Krajina was actually majority Croat and Croats were purged from Krajina for 4 years by various paramilitary groups which were lead by a dentist (babic) and another fellow (a butcher I think) Martic. All of this was in name of Greater Serbia. In Bosnia, muslims were purged from Republica Srpska and Kosovo crisis resulted in half a million refugees.

In Krajina, Babic and Martic ordered civilian evacuation of the area, as the croats were launching an attack to regain control. This was after the serbs rejected a Z-4 plan giving them autonomy. The serb troops were the FIRST to leave Krajina, not even protecting their own population. In the whole operation, about 150 had died....now compare that to 1000's in Srebrenica alone for example.

key is to remember that it happened in 1995, not 1991. War was not a result of Operation Storm but a number of things that happened for 4 years before that. Serbs had a chance for something with Z-4 plan, but decided to be unrealistic and lost everything. Even their own RSK prime minister Babic ADMITTED that serbs started the war first. but its tragic that serbs ignore that bit.

Mihail et al. There is no point even reading Daniels posts. He clings for dear life to the Tudjman version of history. Daniel puts the D in HDZ and will denounce any other versions or points of view for page after boring page. Lets just say there was provision in the constitution of SFRY for the disbanding of the Federation but Slovenia and Croatia didn't follow this constitutional path, strife was the result and lots of people did lots of very ugly and unpleasant things to each other. One final thing to note is that of the former SFRY constituent states there are NOW 2 ethnically pure states (and 1 province), 1 state where the ethnicities are grouped into three monoethnic blocks, and then there are the 3 Slav Orthodox States which retain their multiethnic social make-up. Strange that, considering it is the orthodox slav who were the ones demonised in the press for the last 17 years.

Daniel, it's also tragic that the Croatian authorities are also filling your head with propaganda. The simple fact is that Krajina was an has been for hundreds of years, majority Serbian. You can find that fact in any mainstream textbook wherever in the world you may be - apart from Croatia obviously.

«Serbs had a chance for something with Z-4 plan, but decided to be unrealistic and lost everything...»

Daniel, Milosevic was so sure that the world (the UN) would not react and would not intervene in the Bosnian War that he sent troops, paramilitaries, to help with the cleansing of large territories in Croatia and Bosnia. That was Milosevic's major mistake... and when the UN realized that a genocide could happen, they ordered NATO to bomb the Serbs and they lost everything!