Remembrance Day Aleksandar Vucic, Remembrance Day (BETAPHOTO/SERBIAN PRESIDENCY/DIMITRIJE GOLL)
On Aug. 4, the Remembrance Day for Serbs killed and exiled during Operation Storm, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the convoys of tractors, refuge seeking, murders on the Petrovac Road (Petrovacka cesta), and “someone’s clear intention not to have any Serbs left in Croatia” had all become part of the Serbian identity.
“Croatia celebrates this day as its Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day. Victory over whom? Over good and humble people, honest householders and farmers,” Vucic said in the evening on Aug. 4 during the commemoration service held in Busije, near Belgrade.
He added that in today’s Serbia new politics and generations had come to force, “young people who wish to proudly and with their heads held high” talk about the crimes their nation had suffered, while also acknowledging the crimes committed by the Serbs.
Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, who was also present at the manifestation, told the attendees that the victims should be mourned but not used to “deepen the [downward] spiral of conflict.”
Croatia launched Operation Storm on Aug. 4 1995 with an attack on what was then the Republic of Serbian Krajina. Somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 Serbs fled before the Croatian forces, while around 2,000 people were killed or went missing. Operation Storm is seen in the Serbian public as one of the greatest ethnic cleansing campaigns in Europe since World War Two.
To get full access to all content of interest see our
Subscription offer
Or
Register for free
And read up to 5 articles each month.
Already have an account? Please Log in.