Friday, August 3, 2018

1,861 Serbs were killed or went missing in Croat offensive

SManalysis

The Veritas Documentation-Information Center has published the names of 1,861 ethnic Serbs who were killed or went missing during and after "Operation Storm."

SOURCE: BETA FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2018

This Croatian military-police offensive took place in early August 1995, and also resulted in more than 200,000 Serbs being expelled from Croatia.

Of the victims, more than 60 percent were civilians, of which about three quarters over 60 years of age, Veritas said.

According to the organization, 548 women were among the victims, of whom about four-fifths were over 60 years of age - one of the "black records" from the 1990s civil wars in the former Yugoslavia.

"Operation Storm" was carried out despite the fact the area was under the protection of the UN - sectors "South" and "North" - and despite the representatives of the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) accepting a day before in Geneva and in Belgrade the international community's proposal for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

About 200,000 Croatian soldiers and police were sent against the Krajina Serbs (RSK had approximately 230,000 inhabitants, with about 30,000 soldiers). About 138,500 members of Croatia's armed formations were directly involved in the operation, Veritas said in a press release.

Out of only a handful of people accused for committing crimes against Serbs during "Operation Storm" Croatia's courts found one guilty with a final verdict (the case "Prukljan and Mandici"). In the last few years, several families of the Serbs killed in this campaign managed to obtain - after multi-year, exhausting trials full of surprising twists - compensation for the deaths of their relatives, Veritas said.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, only one person has been found guilty and sentenced for war crimes committed against four members of RSK's army. The person was found guilty of giving consent to a mujaheddin from his unit to execute the Serbs, captured in Suva Medja, in Croatia, the statement said.

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