The Center for Civic Education (CGO) announced today that it pays tribute to the innocent victims of crimes during Operation "Storm", which was carried out from August 4 to 7, 1995, and uses the opportunity to point out the importance and obligation of revealing the truth about the missing. prosecution of war crimes and justice for victims as permanent duties of all governments in the region.
"We remind you that 27 years ago, with the attack on Knin, at dawn on August 4, 1995, the long-prepared exodus of Serbs from Krajina began. In the military-police operation of Croatian units "Storm", systematic crimes were committed against the civilian population of Serbian nationality and their property. In a few days, about 250.000 people were expelled, mainly to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and other countries of the former Yugoslavia, and thousands of houses and other buildings were burned. To this day, a large number of refugees have not returned to the areas from which they were expelled. According to according to the data of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, by the end of 1995, about 400 Serbs were killed who decided to stay in their homes," the statement of the CGE, signed by Tamara Milaš, coordinator of the Human Rights Program, points out.
The statement added that unfortunately, even today, we are witnessing new conflicts through the implementation of commemorative policies of memory, which, as added by the CGO, does not contribute to the reconciliation process, but further deepens tensions.
"The absence of impunity for criminals in the framework of the "Storm" operation is an expression of the lack of political will, which reduces the space for self-critical review of the past and recognition of the victims, regardless of religion and ethnicity. It is worrying that the victims of the wars of the 90s, including those killed in the operation" "storms" were not listed and that among the leaders of the post-Yugoslav countries there are no politically mature and responsible people to gather around this civilizational and historical obligation. The process of searching for missing persons has practically stopped, while the families of the missing still bear the burden of painful uncertainty," the CGO statement reads.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) said that in the previous court proceedings, the only one before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2008 for crimes against the Serbian population in "Oluja" was Ante Gotovina, the commander of the Croatian Army's collective area Split and the chief operational commander of Operation "Storm" in the southern part of the Krajina area, followed by Ivan Čermak, commander of the Knin assembly town and Mladen Markač, commander of the Special Police of the MUP of the Republic of Croatia.
"By the first-instance verdict, from 2011, Gotovina and Markač were sentenced to 24 and 18 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while Cermak was acquitted, and after an appeal, the following year, Gotovina and Markač were acquitted of criminal responsibility. This judgment caused a lot of controversy because the Trial and Appeals Chambers of the ICTY - on the basis of the same facts and the same law - reached diametrically opposite conclusions about the key issues that the prosecution and defense disputed at the trial," the CCE stated.
The CGE said that it is important to emphasize that these conclusions do not call into question the established facts about what actually happened during and after the "Storm" operation.
"Victims, survivors and families of those killed and missing during the "Storm" are invisible victims for the institutions of all countries in the region. Whether they live in Croatia, Serbia or Montenegro today, they do not have any material, health or psychosocial support from the institutions. For efficient processing of such cases we need strong institutions, political will and courageous leaders who would put an end to the politics of hatred and persecution, and who, despite the political changes in the region, do not show that capacity," concludes the statement of the CGE.
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