MARKING THE DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR SERBS KILLED AND DISPLACED IN CROATIA`S POGROM BEGINS

MRKONJIĆ GRAD, AUGUST 4 /SRNA/ – The central commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for All Serbs Killed and Expelled during the 1995 Croatian-Muslim pogrom against Serbs from Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska has began this evening in Mrkonjić Grad.

A memorial service for the Serb victims is being served in King Peter I Karađorđević Square by His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, concelebrated by bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The commemoration is attended by presidents of Republika Srpska and Serbia, Siniša Karan and Aleksandar Vučić, President Milorad Dodik, Republika Srpska National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić, Serbia’s National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabić, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minić, and Serb BiH Presidency member Željka Cvijanović.

Also attending are Republika Srpska Minister of Labour, War Veterans and Disabled Persons Protection Radan Ostojić, Republika Srpska Minister of Interior Željko Budimir, Serbia’s Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, Serbia’s Defence Minister Bratislav Gašić, and Deputy Defence Minister in the BiH Council of Ministers Aleksandar Goganović.

The event is also attended by Serb representatives in BiH joint institutions, officials from municipalities and cities across Republika Srpska, and representatives of organisations stemming from the Defensive-Patriotic War.

Former Serbian basketball stars Željko Rebrača and Dejan Tomašević are also present in Mrkonjić Grad.

Following the memorial service, His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije will deliver an address, after which a spiritual and artistic programme and speeches by officials will follow.

The organisers of the commemorative event, titled "The Croatian-Muslim Pogrom against the Serbs of Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska in 1995," are the Committees preserving traditions of liberation wars of the governments of Republika Srpska and Serbia.

The criminal Croatian military and police Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by Croatian armed forces, police, and Croatian Defence Council /HVO/ units in the regions of Banija, Lika, Kordun, and northern Dalmatia, during which more than 220,000 Krajina Serbs were expelled from their ancestral homes.

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

Among the victims were ten children under the age of 14 and 566 women, about four-fifths of whom were older than 60, which represents particularly grim record of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, Veritas points out.

In its February 2015 ruling, the International Court of Justice characterized Operation Storm as ethnic cleansing, not as genocide, although, although some international experts in that field argue that the operation exhibited all the characteristics of genocide.

SRNA is broadcasting the central commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for all Serbs killed and expelled during the 1995 Croatian-Muslim pogrom against the Serbs from Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska live on its YouTube channel.