STEVANDIĆ: CRIME LIKE OPERATION STORM WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN AGAIN

SREMSKI KARLOVCI, AUGUST 3 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić says a horrific crime like the one committed by Croatian forces against Serbs during Operation Storm three decades ago will not be allowed to happen again.

Stevandić posted on X that from Sremski Karlovci tonight, where Republika Srpska and Serbia jointly marked 30 years since the crimes against Serbs, the message was sent that the suffering of the Serb people in the criminal Croatian military Operation Storm will never be forgotten.

The Republika Srpska National Assembly speaker attended the this evening in Sremski Karlovci the marking of the Day of Remembrance for all Serbs who were killed and expelled in the criminal Croatian Operation Storm.

The criminal Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian Army and Police, along with HVO units, in the areas of Banija, Lika, Kordun, and north Dalmatia.

The next day, August 5, Croatian forces entered the nearly abandoned town of Knin and raised the Croatian flag, while convoys of refugees were crossing Serb-controlled territories in BiH heading toward Serbia.

According to "Veritas", more than 220,000 Serbs were expelled during the Storm. 1,903 names are registered as killed or missing during and after the operation - of whom 1,247 /66%/ were civilians, around three-quarters of whom were over 60 years old.

The International Court of Justice, in its February 2015 verdict, classified Operation Storm as ethnic cleansing but not as genocide, although global experts in the field argue that the operation had all the elements of genocide.