Operation "Storm": Serbia mourns, Croatia celebrates
1. RE: TEN YEARS AGO - Clinton made 1995 Ethnic Cleansing in Krajina
Possible
by Luciana Bohne
2. From various sources...
SEE ALSO:
VERITAS
Centre for Collecting Documents and Information
WARNING! Following publications contain authentic documents and
photographs of monstrous crimes committed against Serbs in Krajina by
the Croatian Army and Police
http://www.veritas.org.yu/
Glas Krajisnika u Egzilu
http://www.krajinaforce.com
http://www.krajinaforce.cjb.net/
Remembering the Storm
Anniversary of a Victorious Crime
August 4, 2005
by Nebojsa Malic
http://antiwar.com/malic/
Jasenovac: The Historical Legacy?
The 1995 Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide of Krajina Serbs
by Carl Savich
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/008.shtml
=== 1 ===
RE: TEN YEARS AGO - Clinton made 1995 Ethnic Cleansing in Krajina Possible
Mary Mostert's analysis of the expulsion of the Serbs from the Krajina
in 1995 is entirely lucid and based on facts. I had been in Dalmatia
on 4 August 1995, during "Operation Tempest," then flew to Italy. The
climate around Split was poisonous with ethnic hatred; on the night of
the Tempest Operation rifle shots could be heard all night sounding
joy on the Croatian side for the particular brutality of the retaking
of the Krajina--villages burning, orthodox churches in flame, poor
people fleeing for their lives. My host acted as if he had got a
particularly gratifying injection of hyper-testosterone! It was an
ugly entirely nazionalistic (the misspelling is appropriate) affair.
I fled in horror; but on Italian television I saw the dreadful convoys
of Serb refugees, thirsty, hungry, terrified, carrying only what they
could, snaking in the punishing August heat on foot along the
scorching roads of their formerly federally united country, flanked by
jeers, insults, and blows from the propagandized population.
The brave new world of the post-Soviet dividend of peace and
prosperity was upon us. And it looked an awful lot like 1939!
Luciana Bohne
--- In JUGOINFO, "Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia" ha scritto:
Clinton made 1995 Ethnic Cleansing in Krajina Possible
Croatian Ethnic Cleansing of Serbian Krajina is Reflected in World
Almanacs
By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
July 24, 2000
(...)
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/4519
=== 2 ===
http://www.fena.ba/uk/vijest.html?fena_id=FSA288489&rubrika=ES
FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - August 4, 2005
BANJA LUKA: SERB REFUGEES FROM CROATIA ON "OLUJA" OFFENSIVE
BANJA LUKA – A number of associations of Serb refugees
from Croatia, i.e. the former Srpska Krajina, have
organised in Banja Luka on Thursday the commemoration
of the tenth anniversary of the "Oluja" offensive by
the Croatian army.
The Documentation-Information Centre "Veritas"
presented figures according to which 1.934 Serbs,
including 1.196 civilians, half of them older than 60
years, were killed or have went missing during the
offensive of the Croatian army.
"Veritas" stated that ten years after "Oluja" there
are now indictments against Croatian generals Ante
Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak describing the
operation as a joint criminal enterprise aimed at
forcefully and permanently removing Serbs from
Croatia.
Also today a service was held in the Banja Luka Church
for Serb victims in Croatia. RS President Dragan
Cavic, RS Labour and Veterans Minister Miodrag Deretic
and RS Interior Minister Darko Matijasevic attended
the service.
Speaking about the "Oluja" offensive Cavic described
it as "ethnic cleansing, rather than an incident".
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#1
Blic (Serbia and Montenegro) - August 4, 2005
Serbia Prime Minister: The biggest ethnic cleansing
'Ten years ago Serbs in Krajina were rooted out in
just a couple of days. Thousands of innocent people
were killed and more than 250,000 expelled. People in
endless column from Knin to Belgrade was a spectacle
of horrible crime never seen before and is the largest
ethnic cleansing after the WWII', Serbia Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica said.
'Ten years have passed, but still there has been no
justice or recognition of the whole truth.
Consequences of this tragedy shall remain forever.
This crime shall be not only the part of the history
of Serbs but of the inhumanity as well. There is an
important task for us to fulfil. That task is return
of the expelled people to their homes and return of
human rights to them. That is the only way leading
towards real peace, justice, reconciliation and
European future', Serbia prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica said on the occasion of the 10th anniversary
of 'Oluja' military operation in Croatia.
---
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050805/41099121.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti) - August 5, 2005
Serbia, Croatia mark 10th anniversary of Krajina Serb expulsion
Nikolai Paskhin
Belgrade - Events marking the 10th anniversary of the
expulsion of Serbs from Krajina were held Friday in
Knin, the breakaway region's capital from 1991 to
1995.
More than 2,500 Serbs were killed or went missing in
August of 1995 as Croatian troops launched an
offensive to return the city to Croatian control.
About 250,000 others fled their homes to find refuge
in Serbia and areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina with a
predominantly Serb population.
President Stjepan Mesic, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader
and Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks have arrived in
Krajina to attend Friday's commemorative events. The
anniversary of the Knin offensive, which became known
as Operation Storm, is being marked in Croatia as
Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day.
Operation Storm veterans had been planning to stage an
opposition rally in Knin Friday, but held off because
of what they see as the republican authorities'
collaboration with the International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia in hunting down three
Croatian generals under whose command the offensive
was carried out. The most wanted of these, Ante
Gotovina, indicted by the ICT for crimes against
humanity and violations of the laws and customs of
war, has been in hiding for a decade now.
Ceremonies to commemorate the mass expulsion of Serbs
from what they see as their ancestral lands in Krajina
also took place in the Serbian capital of Belgrade
today, bringing together Serbian government officials
and hundreds of refugees from Croatia.
In Serbia, Operation Storm is considered to be the
worst case of ethnic cleansing since World War II.
---
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?nav_id=32601&style=headlines
B92 (Serbia and Montenegro) - August 4, 2005
Ten years after the Storm
BELGRADE, ZAGREB – Today marks the ten-year
commemoration of the Storm military operation.
During this military move which began on August 4,
1995, Croatian military forces killed hundreds and
forced about 250,000 Serbs out of their homes and
country, many of which still live in refugee centers
around Serbia today. Serbia-Montenegro Human Rights
Minister Rasim Ljajic went to visit one such refugee
center, accompanied for the first time by a Hague
representative.
Ljajic said that great pressure will be put on Croatia
to enable the return of these refugees and said that
the problem is not that the return process is being
halted blatantly, rather consists of secretive
prohibitions that make the process more difficult,
such as delaying the handing out of certain permits
and licenses for the restoration of homes.
"Unfortunately I have not seen an honest desire from
Croatia to make the process move faster. In the first
seven months only 1941 people returned, but there are
still 100,000 people here." Ljajic said.
Hague Tribunal Representative Aleksandra Milenov is
the first Hague official ever to visit a refugee
center in Serbia. Refugees asked her to hold those
people who are responsible for their current
situation, accountable; she said that the three people
who are most responsible, Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac
and Ivan Cermak, have all been indicted.
*"The Tribunal, unfortunately, cannot issue indictment
for all war criminals. The Tribunal focuses on those
that it feels are most responsible."* Milenov said.
Seventy percent of the refugees living in these camps
in Serbia are from Croatia.
Family members of missing persons from the Storm
action left a list of 2,627 missing Serbs, who went
missing in between 1991 and 1995, at the Croatian
embassy. No embassy officials came out to take the
list, so the protesters slid the list under the
embassy door. Roses were also left in front of the
embassy to honor the missing persons and victims of
the Storm action.
Refugees from the collective center in Krnjaca say
that they believe that they will never be able to
return to their homes and that they have been watching
ministers and various international officials come by
for the past ten years, make promises and then leave.
Zivko Manojlovic, a refugee from Drnisa, said that
life has been very difficult for him in the last ten
years.
"I do not think that anyone in the world has it harder
than we wretches do. I came with one child that was
eight days old and one five and a half year-old, and I
spent the next four years in a factory workshop. I've
been extremely sick twice and have no income."
Manojlovic said.
As Serbia mourns, Croatia celebrates
In Serbia, the ten-year commemoration of the Storm
operation will be marked with peaceful protests,
church services, exhibits, documentary films and panel
discussion. In Croatia however, August 5 is a national
holiday which celebrates a National Thanksgiving Day,
and has been deemed the National Croatia Armed Forces
Day four years ago as well.
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that Croatia had
every right, according to UN resolutions, to implement
the Storm operation.
"This action was exceptionally prepared, under all
guidelines of war, and was implemented to quickly
break the resistance of the aggressor and was carried
out while following all international conventions.
Unfortunately, after the operation, there were
excesses, war crimes and robberies. This was already
taken care of in court, but was not completed and now
is the time to do so." Mesic said.
1. RE: TEN YEARS AGO - Clinton made 1995 Ethnic Cleansing in Krajina
Possible
by Luciana Bohne
2. From various sources...
SEE ALSO:
VERITAS
Centre for Collecting Documents and Information
WARNING! Following publications contain authentic documents and
photographs of monstrous crimes committed against Serbs in Krajina by
the Croatian Army and Police
http://www.veritas.org.yu/
Glas Krajisnika u Egzilu
http://www.krajinaforce.com
http://www.krajinaforce.cjb.net/
Remembering the Storm
Anniversary of a Victorious Crime
August 4, 2005
by Nebojsa Malic
http://antiwar.com/malic/
Jasenovac: The Historical Legacy?
The 1995 Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide of Krajina Serbs
by Carl Savich
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/008.shtml
=== 1 ===
RE: TEN YEARS AGO - Clinton made 1995 Ethnic Cleansing in Krajina Possible
Mary Mostert's analysis of the expulsion of the Serbs from the Krajina
in 1995 is entirely lucid and based on facts. I had been in Dalmatia
on 4 August 1995, during "Operation Tempest," then flew to Italy. The
climate around Split was poisonous with ethnic hatred; on the night of
the Tempest Operation rifle shots could be heard all night sounding
joy on the Croatian side for the particular brutality of the retaking
of the Krajina--villages burning, orthodox churches in flame, poor
people fleeing for their lives. My host acted as if he had got a
particularly gratifying injection of hyper-testosterone! It was an
ugly entirely nazionalistic (the misspelling is appropriate) affair.
I fled in horror; but on Italian television I saw the dreadful convoys
of Serb refugees, thirsty, hungry, terrified, carrying only what they
could, snaking in the punishing August heat on foot along the
scorching roads of their formerly federally united country, flanked by
jeers, insults, and blows from the propagandized population.
The brave new world of the post-Soviet dividend of peace and
prosperity was upon us. And it looked an awful lot like 1939!
Luciana Bohne
--- In JUGOINFO, "Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia" ha scritto:
Clinton made 1995 Ethnic Cleansing in Krajina Possible
Croatian Ethnic Cleansing of Serbian Krajina is Reflected in World
Almanacs
By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
July 24, 2000
(...)
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/4519
=== 2 ===
http://www.fena.ba/uk/vijest.html?fena_id=FSA288489&rubrika=ES
FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - August 4, 2005
BANJA LUKA: SERB REFUGEES FROM CROATIA ON "OLUJA" OFFENSIVE
BANJA LUKA – A number of associations of Serb refugees
from Croatia, i.e. the former Srpska Krajina, have
organised in Banja Luka on Thursday the commemoration
of the tenth anniversary of the "Oluja" offensive by
the Croatian army.
The Documentation-Information Centre "Veritas"
presented figures according to which 1.934 Serbs,
including 1.196 civilians, half of them older than 60
years, were killed or have went missing during the
offensive of the Croatian army.
"Veritas" stated that ten years after "Oluja" there
are now indictments against Croatian generals Ante
Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak describing the
operation as a joint criminal enterprise aimed at
forcefully and permanently removing Serbs from
Croatia.
Also today a service was held in the Banja Luka Church
for Serb victims in Croatia. RS President Dragan
Cavic, RS Labour and Veterans Minister Miodrag Deretic
and RS Interior Minister Darko Matijasevic attended
the service.
Speaking about the "Oluja" offensive Cavic described
it as "ethnic cleansing, rather than an incident".
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#1
Blic (Serbia and Montenegro) - August 4, 2005
Serbia Prime Minister: The biggest ethnic cleansing
'Ten years ago Serbs in Krajina were rooted out in
just a couple of days. Thousands of innocent people
were killed and more than 250,000 expelled. People in
endless column from Knin to Belgrade was a spectacle
of horrible crime never seen before and is the largest
ethnic cleansing after the WWII', Serbia Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica said.
'Ten years have passed, but still there has been no
justice or recognition of the whole truth.
Consequences of this tragedy shall remain forever.
This crime shall be not only the part of the history
of Serbs but of the inhumanity as well. There is an
important task for us to fulfil. That task is return
of the expelled people to their homes and return of
human rights to them. That is the only way leading
towards real peace, justice, reconciliation and
European future', Serbia prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica said on the occasion of the 10th anniversary
of 'Oluja' military operation in Croatia.
---
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050805/41099121.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti) - August 5, 2005
Serbia, Croatia mark 10th anniversary of Krajina Serb expulsion
Nikolai Paskhin
Belgrade - Events marking the 10th anniversary of the
expulsion of Serbs from Krajina were held Friday in
Knin, the breakaway region's capital from 1991 to
1995.
More than 2,500 Serbs were killed or went missing in
August of 1995 as Croatian troops launched an
offensive to return the city to Croatian control.
About 250,000 others fled their homes to find refuge
in Serbia and areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina with a
predominantly Serb population.
President Stjepan Mesic, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader
and Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks have arrived in
Krajina to attend Friday's commemorative events. The
anniversary of the Knin offensive, which became known
as Operation Storm, is being marked in Croatia as
Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day.
Operation Storm veterans had been planning to stage an
opposition rally in Knin Friday, but held off because
of what they see as the republican authorities'
collaboration with the International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia in hunting down three
Croatian generals under whose command the offensive
was carried out. The most wanted of these, Ante
Gotovina, indicted by the ICT for crimes against
humanity and violations of the laws and customs of
war, has been in hiding for a decade now.
Ceremonies to commemorate the mass expulsion of Serbs
from what they see as their ancestral lands in Krajina
also took place in the Serbian capital of Belgrade
today, bringing together Serbian government officials
and hundreds of refugees from Croatia.
In Serbia, Operation Storm is considered to be the
worst case of ethnic cleansing since World War II.
---
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?nav_id=32601&style=headlines
B92 (Serbia and Montenegro) - August 4, 2005
Ten years after the Storm
BELGRADE, ZAGREB – Today marks the ten-year
commemoration of the Storm military operation.
During this military move which began on August 4,
1995, Croatian military forces killed hundreds and
forced about 250,000 Serbs out of their homes and
country, many of which still live in refugee centers
around Serbia today. Serbia-Montenegro Human Rights
Minister Rasim Ljajic went to visit one such refugee
center, accompanied for the first time by a Hague
representative.
Ljajic said that great pressure will be put on Croatia
to enable the return of these refugees and said that
the problem is not that the return process is being
halted blatantly, rather consists of secretive
prohibitions that make the process more difficult,
such as delaying the handing out of certain permits
and licenses for the restoration of homes.
"Unfortunately I have not seen an honest desire from
Croatia to make the process move faster. In the first
seven months only 1941 people returned, but there are
still 100,000 people here." Ljajic said.
Hague Tribunal Representative Aleksandra Milenov is
the first Hague official ever to visit a refugee
center in Serbia. Refugees asked her to hold those
people who are responsible for their current
situation, accountable; she said that the three people
who are most responsible, Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac
and Ivan Cermak, have all been indicted.
*"The Tribunal, unfortunately, cannot issue indictment
for all war criminals. The Tribunal focuses on those
that it feels are most responsible."* Milenov said.
Seventy percent of the refugees living in these camps
in Serbia are from Croatia.
Family members of missing persons from the Storm
action left a list of 2,627 missing Serbs, who went
missing in between 1991 and 1995, at the Croatian
embassy. No embassy officials came out to take the
list, so the protesters slid the list under the
embassy door. Roses were also left in front of the
embassy to honor the missing persons and victims of
the Storm action.
Refugees from the collective center in Krnjaca say
that they believe that they will never be able to
return to their homes and that they have been watching
ministers and various international officials come by
for the past ten years, make promises and then leave.
Zivko Manojlovic, a refugee from Drnisa, said that
life has been very difficult for him in the last ten
years.
"I do not think that anyone in the world has it harder
than we wretches do. I came with one child that was
eight days old and one five and a half year-old, and I
spent the next four years in a factory workshop. I've
been extremely sick twice and have no income."
Manojlovic said.
As Serbia mourns, Croatia celebrates
In Serbia, the ten-year commemoration of the Storm
operation will be marked with peaceful protests,
church services, exhibits, documentary films and panel
discussion. In Croatia however, August 5 is a national
holiday which celebrates a National Thanksgiving Day,
and has been deemed the National Croatia Armed Forces
Day four years ago as well.
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that Croatia had
every right, according to UN resolutions, to implement
the Storm operation.
"This action was exceptionally prepared, under all
guidelines of war, and was implemented to quickly
break the resistance of the aggressor and was carried
out while following all international conventions.
Unfortunately, after the operation, there were
excesses, war crimes and robberies. This was already
taken care of in court, but was not completed and now
is the time to do so." Mesic said.