Vučić at the commemoration of Operation "Storm": "We'll never be silent again" PHOTO

Vučić at the commemoration of Operation "Storm": "We'll never be silent again" PHOTO

Tonight, Novi Sad was in memory of the victims of the biggest ethnic cleansing after the Second World War, and the sympathy of all who came to support the victims of persecution and pay their respects to those who died and went missing during “the biggest ethnic cleansing on European soil after WWII”, the biggest crime against the Serbian people in recent history.

President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, attended the commemoration of the anniversary of Operation "Storm".

Vučić addressed the crowd and said that for years in Serbia, there seemed to be no witnesses to the crimes committed against our people.

"This is the ninth year that we are commemorating the pogrom, the heinous crime and the biggest ethnic cleansing since the Second World War. There are two reasons why we are here today. The first is sadness, because of the killed children, women, old men, 250.000 exiles. The second is to hear those testimonies. For years, there seemed to be no witnesses and no one in Serbia who could tell how ordinary people, civilians, were killed, how their houses were looted and burned. How, while they were leaving Croatia in tractor convoys, they left their hearths, were stoned... No one to say that they bombed those convoys, killing children and old people, little brothers and sisters. That's how we justified them and repeated the crime, that's how we declared indifference as the ruling ideology," said Vučić.

Vučić says that we imposed a sense of guilt on our own people due to 18 years of neglecting the memory of Serbian suffering.

"We did that for almost entire adulthood, 18 years, and it didn't get any better than that. We burdened our own people with an eternal sense of guilt, we justified every crime... They even changed our name, called us "Croatian Serbs", "Bosnian Serbs" , "Kosovo Serbs", and we are only Serbs and there is no difference between us. The fact that we live in different countries does not mean that we belong to different nations," said Vučić.

Vučić stated that they never have enough and added that we want peace at any cost. As he said, we want no one's life to be endangered, to protect others as well as us. "The last few days have been the hardest for me in the last few years. They brought us to the edge, when I had to say that we have nowhere to go. When that's the case, then we will protect and defend our people" , Vucic said.

There are decades in which nothing happens, and there are weeks in which decades happen, Vučić quoted Lenin. "I will say today: that time is over and there is no more silence, it is the most sacred obligation that we will not give up," said Vučić.

The president also recalled the recent crisis caused by Albin Kurti in Kosovo and Metohija, and said that he told the world leaders then that "we have nowhere else to go". "We will protect Serbia, and we will respond to their hysteria of lies and threats by calling for peace," said Vučić.

He recalled the shameful treatment of the Krajina citizens by the authorities in 1995 and added that we will never forget the suffering of the people of Krajina. Vučić said that we have nowhere else to go.

"We will protect our Serbia, we will defend it and we will win," said Vučić. "Today we are here to show that Serbia is no longer a handful of oats and that he has no intention of bowing his head and confirming to them that the forbidden city of "Jasenovac" and "Oluja" are not myths, but facts with which we live," said Vučić.

"Serbia will not remain silent and pretend to be dead when someone tries to kill and expel our people," added Vučić. "We have been sending the message for years that there will be no more "Storm" and today we are doing it again," said Vučić.

"The storm wounded the Serbian people, it wounded us badly, but Serbia gained many good people, many of whom are here among us. We will always accept and repent for the crimes that some have committed in our name, but we will never again be silent and ashamed of the crime committed against our people," said Vučić. Vučić says that it doesn't bother us when they celebrate, but it bothers us that they prevent us from remembering.

"The storm wounded our people, but Serbia and RS received many wonderful people in return. We will always accept and repent for the crimes committed by some of our people, but we will never again be silent and ashamed of the crimes committed against our people. Trust is what matters. We need to look to the future together. We don't even mind when they celebrate, we just mind when they prevent us from grieving. Just let us remember, let us live with our misery, pain and suffering. Do not expect the Serbs to renounce their dead, we have survived both Jasenovac and Oluja, and you see tonight in Novi Sad, we have risen again. Glory to all the victims, we honor them. Long live Serbia and Republika Srpska", said Vučić. In Serbia, August 4 is marked as the day when the offensive of the Croatian army and police and Croatian Defense Council in the regions of Banija, Kordun, Lika and northern Dalmatia, that is, the then Republic of Srpska Krajina, marked the beginning of the Operation Storm which led to the exodus of over 200.000 Serbs from Croatia.

Croatia celebrates August 5 as a state holiday, the day when the Operation Storm ended with the entry of the Croatian army into the practically deserted city of Knin and the raising of the Croatian flag at the Knin fortress. Since 2000, this day is also celebrated as the Croatian Armed Forces Day. About 130.000 members of the armed forces from the Croatian side took part in the action.