20 Years: Storm

From Yahoo:
"Croatia celebrates, Serbia mourns military operation 20 years on"

Zagreb cheered and Belgrade wept on Tuesday as they marked the 20th anniversary of Operation Storm, which ended the war sparked by Croatia's proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia and caused an exodus of Croatian Serbs. Croatia started celebrating its "liberation" with a military parade, with some 3,000 soldiers and war veterans, 300 vehicles and 30 aircraft in the capital Zagreb, gathering thousands of spectators. Another ceremony, attended by top officials, will be held on Wednesday in the town of Knin, a wartime rebel Serb stronghold that Croatian troops recaptured on August 5, 1995. "Operation Storm was a turning point (in the conflict), a brilliant military operation, justified and legitimate," Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said in a speech at a defence ministry ceremony, encouraging citizens to be "proud and dignified" during the festivities. The Croatian army launched Operation Storm on August 4, 1995, and in an 84-hour offensive it saw 130,000 troops recapture a region that had been in Serb hands since 1991. Sources differ on the number of ethnic Serbs who were brutally killed in the offensive, with tolls ranging from 600 to 2,500.  More than 200,000 others fled Croatia during and after the operation, with their property looted, seized or burned down. Barely half of those who fled have since returned. Operation Storm ushered in the end of the war that in total claimed about 20,000 lives.  The four-year conflict was sparked by Croatia's proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia, which was opposed by Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs. While Croatia celebrates the anniversary as its Victory Day, Serbia has declared Wednesday an official day of mourning and brands the operation the worst instance of ethnic cleansing in Europe in recent history.  Thousands of people attended an official commemoration held in the northwestern Serbian town of Sremska Raca, where hundreds of thousands of refugees took shelter 20 years ago. They were joined by top Serb leaders including Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Serbian Orthodox Church patriarch Irinej.  Vucic and Dodik symbolically met on a bridge separating Bosnia and Serbia that was crowded back in August 1995 by vast numbers of Croatian Serbs fleeing in cars and tractors.

The two leaders threw wreaths into the Sava river in memory of the victims. Addressing the crowd, Vucic said it was "hard to find more sad day in recent Serbian history than this one". "We have peace with Croatia and we are going to preserve it, and we wish to have the best relations. I hope we will also be good friends in the European Union. But today, we send a message that the crime should be forgiven but must not be forgotten," Vucic said.

 

 

^ Even though innocent people died in Operation Storm (on both sides) you have to take into account who started the Croatian War and how it was fought to understand how much Croatia had to overcome. When Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia all the Yugoslav military (men and weapons) was controlled by Belgrade (ie Serbia.) The Serbs were the great "goliath" who started war in Croatia to create a "Greater Serbia" into Croatian land. The Serbs would do the same thing in Bosnia after they declared their independence. When Croatia was attacked on several fronts by what was left of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) they had almost nothing. They had what little weapons they could capture - because of an international embargo - and so Serbia, which had all the weapons it needed, simply took over large areas of Croatia and tried to ethnically cleanse them. By 1995 Croatia had rallied itself (again despite any international aid) and Operation Storm did in a matter of days what the past several years had been unable to. Croatia and the Croatian people deserve to remember the sacrifice they endured during the war - again one they didn't start nor wanted. Serbia or the Serbian people really haven't accepted the crimes they committed during the Slovenian War, the Croatian War, the Bosnian War or the Kosovan War. Those wars started by the Serbs within Serbia as well as ethnic Serbs in those countries. Therefore the carnage that resulted started with them and they need to accept that fact and work hard to make sure that that disgusting, ultra-nationalist Serbian belief is eradicated so it can never again cause the deaths of so many people. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/croatia-celebrates-serbia-mourns-military-operation-20-years-194609576.html