ŽUPLJANIN: SERBIAN VICTIMS OF OPERATION STORM WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

BANJA LUKA, JULY 31 /SRNA/ - The President of the Organization of Elders of the Republika Srpska Army /RSA/ Slobodan Župljanin believes that by jointly marking the Day of Remembrance for all killed and exiled Serbs in the Croatian military-police Operation Storm, Republika Srpska and Serbia are sending a message that Serbian victims will never be forgotten.

"Srpska and Serbia are also sending a message that the Serbian people will never be divided when it comes to the protection of vital national interests and the key values of Serbian liberation wars," Župljanin told SRNA on the occasion of the upcoming commemoration of the victims of this crime. Župljanin pointed out that life without freedom is not a life for a Serb, and the sacrifice the Serbian people paid for freedom is binding. "Serbs are one people and of one Serbian Orthodox faith, and they should and must jointly commemorate such events, which are part of the planned genocidal activities against the Serbian people by revived Ustashism, based on a clouded consciousness and the Ustasha ideology of the Independent State of Croatia," Župljanin indicates. According to him, it was not enough for them to expel and kill half a million Serbs from the then-Croatia, so they went further, thinking they could eradicate the Serbian seed across the entire territory of the former Yugoslavia. "They did not succeed in that and they never will, but, unfortunately, a large number of innocent people, women, children, the elderly, and other vulnerable Serbs perished in the act of direct aggression by Croatia on the territory of another state where the Serbian people defended themselves against a complete pogrom," Župljanin noted. He reminded that in the joint operation of Croatian-Muslim forces "Southern Move" in October 1995, they left behind a burned and destroyed Mrkonjić Grad, and within it, mass graves of Serbian victims. Župljanin says it is sad and unbelievable that no one has yet been held accountable for such crimes, emphasizing that this is a complete downfall of law and justice for Serbian victims. "The Serbian people must never forget this crime and must not stop demanding accountability for the criminals," stated Župljanin. He added that fostering a culture of remembrance and preserving the memory of the innocent victims must be the patriotic and human obligation of every Serb, but also of anyone else who feels like a human being. The Day of Remembrance for all killed and exiled Serbs in the Croatian-Muslim pogrom against Serbs from the Republic of Serbian Krajina and Republika Srpska in 1995 will be marked in Mrkonjić Grad on Tuesday, August 4. The commemoration of this historic event of republican importance is jointly organized by the governments of Republika Srpska and Serbia. The criminal Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian army and police, as well as HVO units, in the areas of Banija, Lika, Kordun, and northern Dalmatia, during which more than 220,000 Krajina Serbs were expelled from their centuries-old homes. The updated records of Veritas contain the names of 1,904 Serbs who were killed or went missing during and after this operation, among them 1,250 civilians, of whom about three-quarters were over 60 years old. Among the victims are also ten children under the age of 14 and 566 women, of whom about four-fifths were over 60 years old. In its February 2015 ruling, the International Court of Justice characterized Operation Storm as ethnic cleansing, but not as genocide, although world experts in the field claim that the operation had all the characteristics of a genocide.