Županjevac: "Why Croats celebrate and Serbs mourn"
Every 4 August 1995, Croats celebrate their victory against the Serbian people who have inhabited significant parts of the territory of today's Republic of Croatia for centuries. However, this date, 4 August, is a day of sorrow and grief for all Serbs. During the military operation "Storm" in August 1995, the heavily armed Croatian army attacked Serb enclaves that were under United Nations protection. In the operation that lasted three days, about 230,000 Serbs were forced to flee their homes. Serbs, most of whom were innocent peasants, fled to eastern Bosnia and Serbia on tractors and in trucks, their families squatting in trailers trying to avoid bombs and machine gun fire from Croatian planes.
When Croatia declared independence from the SFRY in 1991, the Serb population of Croatia, which made up about 15 percent of the population, was deeply endangered. The Croatian nationalist government, which came to power in the spring of 1990, immediately began introducing symbols, flags and coats of arms, and even the currency which was once used in the pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia, established by Adolf Hitler when he invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941. During the four years of the rule of the pro-Nazi Croatian Ustashas in the Independent State of Croatia, from 1941 to 1945, hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma were exterminated. Most of the innocent victims were killed in the notorious Jasenovac concentration camp.
Serbs in Croatia remembered those times and did not want it to happen again. They did not want to live in an independent Croatia that was nostalgic for the notorious entity that existed during the World War II. Serbs from Krajina have lived in the areas of Lika, Banija, Kordun and northern Dalmatia for more than three centuries. They were inhabited there by the Habsburgs as early as the 16th century, to form a protection zone, to be the border protection and the force facing the Ottoman Empire.
However, on 4 August 1995, Croatian forces, advised by retired US Army generals acting on the instructions of Bill Clinton, launched a major attack on Serbs from Krajina. In just a few days, the Croatian army was in Knin, the capital of Krajina, which for centuries had been a city inhabited mostly by Serbs. The Croatian flag still flutters in Knin, where there are hardly any Serbs today.
To this day, these tragic events from August 1995 have not been seen globally. In the operation "Storm", nearly 2,000 fleeing Serbs were killed. Over 230,000 Serbs fled their homes and most never returned. Croatia is celebrating the "Storm" and will do it again this year. Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, the Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will not celebrate. We will mourn the dead and the suffering of the exiled. The Croatian generals who led the operation "Storm", Ante Gotovina, Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač, were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and convicted of crimes committed during the operation, which were characterized as a "joint criminal venture". However, they were acquitted on appeal. Justice for the innocent Serb victims from Krajina is unattainable and this is a striking example of double standards and injustice that exists in today's world. According to the 1991 census, there were 581,663 Serbs living in Croatia. Now there are less than 200 thousand of them and only a small number of them live in Krajina. The rights of the remaining Serbs in Croatia are generally not respected. The right to use one's language, script and culture is constantly being challenged.
Serbia does not and will not call for revenge or new conflicts, because it sincerely believes in the values of peace, stability and good neighborly relations. Peace is the greatest value and Serbs do not respond to provocations. Serbia and Serbs around the world remember suffering well, and they will not, and cannot remain silent.