Memory
CROATIA – SERBIA: Commemoration of 1995 Operation Storm confronts anew the former opposing actors
In August 2015, on the 20th anniversary of the Croatian victory in Operation Storm in Knin, Croatia, several commemoration activities were held in the city to commemorate the struggle and honour the veterans. Doves were released, a museum was inaugurated documenting “Croatia’s struggle for freedom”, and a statue of Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian President at that time, was unveiled. Thousand of Croatian people travelled from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to attend the celebrations. In parallel, to commemorate the expulsion of the Serbian minority in the region, in Serbia church bells rang and air-raid sirens sounded in memory of the victims, and memorial services were held in several Serbian towns and cities. After the ceremony in Knin, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement protesting that some of the slogans shouted constituted hate speech since they called for the killing of Serbs. He also said Ustasha-fascist symbols were deployed and asked that such acts be punished. Coinciding with the commemoration, several Croatian and Serb organisations launched the site “Storm in the Hague” to publish the findings of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) regarding five issues: the goal of Operation Storm, the purpose of the Croatian military's shelling, the murders that were committed, the destruction and plunder of property, and the prevention of Serb refugee return, as well as the ICTY verdict. Operation Storm caused the death of 2,000 civilians and the displacement of more than 200,000 Serbs citizens from Croatia. Only 133,075 of them have returned, while 32,893 are still living as refugees, mostly in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Balkan Transitional Justice, 31/07/15, 05/08/15; B92, 06/08/15)