ATTENDING THE MARKING OF OPERATION STORM IN CROATIA IS NOT STATE OBLIGATION OF MONTENEGRO

PODGORICA, AUGUST 5 /SRNA/ – Montenegro's good relations with Croatia are based on respect and cooperation, but not on an obligation to attend events that evoke painful memories for a large number of Montenegrin citizens, the Office of Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović announced after the government's decision to once again send a representative to Croatia's celebration of Operation Storm.

The statement says that, for Serbs, Operation Storm is a symbol of suffering, expulsion and the loss of their homes.

The President's Office stressed that Montenegro's responsible state policy requires restraint and respect for all victims of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, without a selective approach.

While Croatia celebrates what it calls Victory Day, Serbs are commemorating their compatriots who were killed 31 years ago during criminal Croatian military and police Operation Storm, in which more than 220,000 Serb civilians were forced out from their homes.

Criminal Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian Army and police, together with units of the Croatian Defence Council /HVO/, in the regions of Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia, during which more than 220,000 Serbs from the Krajina region were forced to flee their ancestral homes.

According to the updated records of the Veritas Documentation and Information Centre, the names of 1,904 Serbs who were killed or went missing during and after the operation have been documented. Among them were 1,250 civilians, about three-quarters of whom were over the age of 60.

The victims also included ten children under the age of 14 and 566 women, about four-fifths of whom were over the age of 60 - which represents a particularly grim record of the 1990s civil war in the former Yugoslavia, Veritas points out.

The International Court of Justice, in its February 2015 ruling, characterized Operation Storm as ethnic cleansing but not genocide, although some international experts on the subject maintain that the operation had all the characteristics of genocide.