STEVANDIĆ: CRIMES AGAINST SERBS IN OPERATION STORM UNDER INTERNATIONAL SPONSORSHIP

BANJA LUKA, JULY 30 /SRNA/ - The President of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska Nenad Stevandić told SRNA that the crimes against Serbs during Operation Storm in 1995 are the saddest part of human history, because it was a pogrom, expulsion, and killing of the Serbian people under the international sponsorship of NATO and a large part of Western Europe.

"In parallel with this, numerous lies and spins about Serbian guilt were launched in order to create an alibi for the largest pogrom and ethnic cleansing since World War II," Stevandić said. He emphasized that through the verdicts of the Hague Tribunal, mostly Serbs were convicted of ethnic cleansing, even though the largest ethnic cleansing was carried out against them. "Thanks to the Serbian national awakening and awareness, especially what Serbia and Republika Srpska have been doing in the last 12 years, we have begun to jointly commemorate these tragic events from our history," he stated. Stevandić emphasized that the truth about what happened has begun to be uncovered, breaking the chains of lies that had placed Serbian victims in an unequal position, leaving them humiliated and forgotten. "Now, for the first time in recent Serbian history over the last 12 years, we are showing reverence, empathy, but also dignity. There will be more resistance, more stereotypes from the nineties when Serbs were called the most derogatory names and adjectives to create an alibi for crimes against Serbs, killings, and expulsions in Croatia, BiH, and Kosovo," he emphasized. Stevandić emphasized that the truth is coming to light, and self-confidence and respect are returning within our own people. The criminal military-police Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian army and police, as well as HVO units in the area of Banija, Lika, Kordun, and northern Dalmatia. A day later, on August 5, the Croatian army entered an almost deserted Knin and hoisted the flag of Croatia, while columns of refugees headed towards Serbia across Serbian territories in BiH. According to data from Veritas, during Operation Storm, more than 220,000 Krajina Serbs were expelled from their homes, and 1,943 people were killed or went missing. The International Court of Justice, in its judgment from February 2015, qualified Operation Storm as ethnic cleansing, but not as genocide, although global experts in that field claim that the operation had all the characteristics of genocide.