The 10th anniversary of ‘Operation Storm’

Have anyone on LJ heard of "Operation Storm" ??

Sounds Like some American Action in Iraq ?

No Just an Ethnic Cleansing opeation by the Croatian State in the War of The Former Yugoslavia.

Please Read on you might actually understand the complex problems that plagued Western Europe.

I First would like to say that Crimes on ALL sides were committed and i firmly believe that all war criminals must and "will" be brought to justice.


"
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, attending a military parade, said the Operation Storm offensive in 1995 was magnificent and liberating. "

What might you think he's talking about???

well this.....



10th anniversary of ‘Operation Storm’ is no exception. Far from being an occasion for shame, at least in Croatia, the single biggest act of ethnic cleansing in Europe since World War II, in which 200,000 Krajina Serbs were driven from their homes and another 2,500 killed, is set to receive official praise.

THAT'S 200,000 People Ethnically Clensed from their land of birth.

While this party must be sending chills down some EU diplomats’ spines, it’s doubtful that anyone from the “international community” will condemn this and risk future property acquisitions in this vacation paradise on the Adriatic.


A few cut and pastes from news broadcasters.

In the days that followed Operation Storm, property was destroyed and atrocities committed against those Serbs who remained.

'I was alone'

The photographs the women hold are of the head of the family, Branko, and his son Mirko.

Branko's wife, Sava, recounts what happened to them.

"I was on a truck full of people when we heard a warplane fly over head, and then open fire.

"People started panicking and running away. I was one of the last to leave the truck, and, when I was alone, I turned around and saw my son's headless body, with my husband behind him, also dead.''

Mirko's wife, Vedrana, survived the journey to Serbia, but died days later during childbirth.

Like most of the Serb refugees from Croatia, the Stijelja family have never felt able or willing to return.

They survive on a small Serbian pension, and had to build the home they live in themselves.

Sava wants Croatia to apologise for killing her husband and son, and to arrest the Croat General accused of war crimes during Operation Storm - Ante Gotovina.

Refugee return

On Thursday, the Stijelja family joined several hundred people in a ceremony at a Belgrade church to remember those who died in the Krajina exodus.

Relatives of the dead and missing also staged a silent protest outside the Croatian embassy.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica described Operation Storm as the biggest example of ethnic cleansing since World War II.

But Croatia says Serbia is making too much of it - that there is no comparison with the genocide of 8,000 Muslims by Serbs at Srebrenica in the same year.


Croatia will mark the anniversary with celebrations on Friday. Operation Storm - along with another offensive in eastern Croatia - was extremely effective.

Within a matter of days they had restored the territorial integrity of Croatia and purged it of most of its Serb population.

Since then the Croatian government has been criticized by the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for failing to do enough to facilitate the return of those refugees who want to go back to Croatia.

Local courts have also made it difficult for Serbs to reclaim their property.

Many refugees have simply sold their homes and taken citizenship in Serbia and Montenegro instead.



What Enrages me is that the "Serbian" People have been demonised as the worst offenders in all the cases of crimes in the FY. In reality there were crimes committed on all sides.

Croatian people and Government are DANCING AND LAUGING AND "HAVING A GREAT TIME" at this celebration that they committed ethnic clensing. THEY ARE CELEBRATING THIS. HAVING BBQS AND BEING HAPPY.



IF YOUR INTERESTED


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4747379.stm

http://www.serbianna.com/columns/deliso/040.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4125640.stm

http://en.rian.ru/world/20050805/41099121.html





What is clear is that (perhaps because of this very interest from Del Ponte and Co.) the Croatian leadership is making a point on this jolly anniversary of reminding us that they had the full support of the Americans when they carried it out. And so the government is going out of its way to glorify Operation Storm, just as it continues to ignore similar things they should take pride in, such as Jasenovac and the Ustasha movement in general.