CROATIAN OPERATION FLASH, ASSISTED BY UN FORCES, EXPELLED SERBS

BIJELJINA, APRIL 30 /SRNA/ – On May 1, 1995, the Croatian armed forces launched the operation Flash, despite the presence of "blue helmets", killing several hundred Serb civilians and expelling thousands of Serbs from Western Slavonia, a part of the then Republika Srpska Krajina.

In this criminal operation, in just 36 hours, 15,000 Serbs were expelled, 283 were killed, including 107 civilians and 12 children. More than 16,000 members of Croatian forces advanced against Serbs in the autonomous region of Western Slavonia. During the attack, around 1,450 members of the Serb Army of Krajina were captured, most of them through deception with the help of UN protection forces, many of whom later endured severe psychological and physical abuse in Bjelovar and Varaždin. UN forces, under pressure from Western powers, did not protect the Serb population.