ZAGREB, Aug 4, 2020 - The opposition Homeland Movement party, led by Miroslav Skoro, said on Tuesday that its delegation, during a visit to Knin on August 5 for the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm, would not attend the official ceremony.

The party said one of the reasons why it would not attend the official ceremony was the fact that President Zoran Milanovic does not want units of the wartime Croatian Defence Force (HOS) to be part of the official protocol, and that one of Homeland Movement members of parliament was HOS general Ante Prkacin, who, it said, would be insulted by the party's attendance at the ceremony.

The Homeland Movement said it wanted to "celebrate the victory with the people" while the area where the official ceremony would be taking place would be cordoned off.

The party also said that statements by the HDZ and its coalition partner the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) ahead of the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm put emphasis on individual negative experiences of representatives of one part of the Serb minority, instead of on those who took part in the 1995 military operation.

"Instead of celebrating the magnificent victory, the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm has turned into a political show by Plenkovic and Milanovic aimed at promoting the Croat-Serb coalition that is based on trade-offs. The Homeland Movement refuses to give legitimacy to what should have been a celebration of the Croatian victory and has been turned into a commemoration for the Serb victims. We respect all victims, but on the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm, guilt cannot be equated and the aggressor cannot be turned into the victim," the party said.

ZAGREB, Aug 4, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday that it was of crucial importance that 25 years after Operation Storm a new massage was being sent about relations between Croats and the ethnic Serb minority, between Serbia and Croatia, and about what kind of country Croatians are building.  

Commenting on the planned attendance of Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic at the central commemoration of Operation Storm in Knin, Plenkovic said that the attendance of a political representative of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) at the commemoration was an important signal.

Minorities are an integral part of the Croatian society and their representatives are our legal and political legacy of the past 30 years, Plenkovic said.

As for reports that members of the wartime Croatian Defence Force (HOS) were planning to attend the commemoration wearing T-shirts with the inscription For the Homeland Ready, Plenkovic said the government had been informed of such plans.

"I expect those who are part of the official protocol to wear T-shirts that identify their units that fought in the Homeland War or official T-shirts provided by the War Veterans Ministry," he said.

Asked if Milosevic's participation in the Knin commemoration would lead to a policy of better social integration for ethnic Serbs, Plenkovic said that minority representatives, including those of the Serb minority, had been part of the parliamentary majority in the last parliament and that their participation now had been raised to a higher level.

"Based on our mutual trust we will work, as we did in the last term in office, on promoting the equality of all citizens and on making it possible for everyone to live in dignity in line with 21st century standards. Specifically, that means electricity and water supply in isolated communities," Plenkovic stressed.

Minister Medved's visit to Grubori, Serb villages not political tradeoff

As for War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved's visit to Grubori, where a group of Serb civilians were killed in the aftermath of Operation Storm, and to Serb villages without electricity and water supply, Plenkovic said that it was not a political tradeoff.

"That is an important political and civilisational gesture by the government, showing respect for all victims. We are aware of the faults and crimes that happened in the aftermath of Operation Storm and we believe that it is good to pay tribute also to the Serb victims," he said.

Asked how much mutual relations were burdened by reactions on the Serb side and by the Serbian president, Plenkovic said that what his government was doing was Croatia's internal matter.

"We are talking about relations between the government and our coalition partner, the political representative of the Serb minority. We make our decisions for ourselves, for Croatia, and as I have said, they send out the message that 25 years after the war we have achieved all our strategic goals, that Croatia is a democratic country, that it has its institutions and legal order and that it is integrated in the EU and NATO," Plenkovic said.

A Croatia that is dealing with economic, health, financial and security challenges has the strength to send messages like this one, he said.

"What someone has to say about it is not a top priority for us. What matters to us is what we do for the sake of relations in the Croatian society," the PM said.

ZAGREB, Aug 3, 2020 - Minister Tomo Medved on Monday said he was glad the entire government would be in Knin, which is a strong message that "calls on everyone to have a united approach aimed at creating an atmosphere of normalisation and closure of many chapters that, in a certain way, burden Croatian society."

Veterans' Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved attended the opening of an exhibition of photographs in Rijeka entitled "25 years later" as part of the 25th anniversary of the Storm military operation.

"Croatian Veterans' Day is the day in the year that the entire society stops for a moment to recall the defenders who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the homeland. We show our respect to all those who contributed so that we can have an independent and sovereign Croatia and together create a prosperous and even better Croatia," said Minister Medved.

He underscored that he was proud of the cooperation with all Homeland War associations from Rijeka and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. "Croatia has achieved the majority of its strategic objectives and let's be proud of what we have done as a nation," Minister Medved said and called for new challenges that life brings to be accepted with optimism as Homeland War defenders did.

Important to mark 25th anniversary of Operation Storm with dignity

Medved reiterated that the message he wishes to send by attending the commemoration in Grubori is that now the most important thing is to mark the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm in a dignified manner and that later commemorations and activities will be discussed after that.

"We all know what the summer and autumn time brought Croatia, how much suffering and commemorations are ahead of us. As we have done so far, we will pay our respects with dignity both to Croatian defenders who died and to all the civilian victims," he said and added that now "we are concentrating on remembering those courageous defenders, the days of pride and glory."

We will mark the anniversary of Operation Storm on August 5 with dignity with the main programme in Knin as well as in other counties, cities and municipalities, which pleases us. The celebration will be different due to measures related to the coronavirus pandemic and foremost to protect the lives and health of citizens, Medved said.

Asked what deputy prime minister Boris Milosevic's attendance at the anniversary of Storm in Knin means, Medved reiterated that he was glad that the entire government would be there. "That is a strong message that calls on everyone to have a united approach, aimed at creating an atmosphere of normalisation and closure of many chapters that, in a certain way, burden Croatian society," he said.

ZAGREB, Aug 3 2020 - Several human rights organisations on Monday welcomed the "positive institutional progress" made ahead of the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm, expressing hope that it would be followed up with specific solutions to ensure the exercise of long-awaited rights by civilian victims of the 1991-1995 war.

The ROSA Centre for Women Victims of War, the Centre for Civil Courage, the Banja Luka-based Centre for Democracy and Transitional Justice, the Sarajevo-based Association for Social Research and Communications, and the Women's Network of Croatia welcomed the decision by Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic, of the Independent Democratic Serb Party, to attend the commemoration of Operation Storm in Knin on August 4.

Also, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Veterans' Affairs, Tomo Medved, will be attending a commemoration in Grubori where five elderly Serbs were killed on August 25, 1995 in the wake of Operation Storm.

"We welcome the positive institutional progress made in recent days and hope that these symbolic steps will be followed up with specific solutions to ensure the exercise of long-awaited rights by civilian victims of the war," the non-governmental organisations said in a joint statement.

Citizens of Croatia were called upon "to seize the initiative because the political elites have for too long used the traumas of the war for purposes of daily politics and glorified war crimes instead of condemning them."

The NGOs noted that many people remained unaccounted-for from the war and that those responsible for ethnic cleansing and war crimes had not been brought to justice to date. In order to stop the abuse of the war and militarisation of the state, they called for promoting a culture of accountability, facing the past, and showing sincere solidarity with all war victims.

ZAGREB, Aug 3, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Sunday that Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic's attendance at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin this week was "a very useful and good thing".

"The fact that Milosevic will be in Knin on behalf of the SDSS (Independent Democratic Serb Party) is a very useful and good thing for Croatian society, for relations between the Croats and the Serb minority in Croatia, for relations between Croatia and Serbia, and it is also a good message that the modern, contemporary Croatia has completed all its national tasks," Plenkovic said in an interview with the public broadcaster HRT.

He said that Milosevic's attendance also showed the government's unity and the need to face what had happened in the past 30 years.

"Operation Storm is not only the most important victory in the Homeland War, but possibly in Croatian history as well. The operation was legally legitimate, militarily inevitable and politically necessary," the prime minister stressed.

"Our objective is to change relations in Croatian society and relations with our neighbours for the better, to put them in the right place and in the right temporal and historical context," he said when asked what kind of cooperation he expected with Serbia after August 5 given its criticism of Milosevic's decision.

"Twenty-five years have passed since the end of the war and 22 since the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region. Croatia is a member of the EU and NATO. ... We consider this decision to be very good and positive, and I believe that with time Belgrade and the entire political scene will realise why this decision is important and why it is good, useful and the only one possible," Plenkovic said.

Medved's attendance at Grubori commemoration an important political gesture

Plenkovic said that the attendance of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Veterans' Affairs Tomo Medved at a commemoration in Grubori, scheduled for later this month to pay tribute to Serbs killed in that village by Croatian forces, was an important political gesture of the Croatian government.

"The fact that Tomo Medved, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Veterans' Affairs, a Croatian Army general, and the commander of the Tigers Brigade, is willing to go to Grubori to make a civilisational gesture on the government's behalf and pay tribute to the victims is an important political gesture of the Croatian government," he said.

"This is good and this is no trade-off. We are now transforming the relations and putting them on a sound basis. There is no political trade-off, we did not think about it or discuss it when we were forming the parliamentary majority. This is a normal course of events as we and I personally see them 25 years after Operation Storm," he added.

Plenkovic said he was pleased that General Ante Gotovina would also speak in Knin. "The fact that the general will speak there is very good for Croatia. We remember his messages after he returned from The Hague, when he said that the war is over and we should turn to the future. I am confident that he too shares the approach we have taken for the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm," Plenkovic said, stressing that all members of his cabinet would be in Knin on August 5.

He reiterated that the ethnic minorities should always be with the government and the governing majority. "They are part of our political heritage of the past 30 years and should make their contribution to Croatia's future. We will cooperate with the ethnic minorities, there is no political doubt about it, and I think it is good and useful."

Active autumn for government

Plenkovic said that the government was bracing for an active autumn, adding that the tax burden on private citizens and businesses would be further eased.

The tax reforms will enter into force on January 1, as has been the case before, and will represent the continuity of the policy to relieve the tax burden on the citizens and businesses, the PM said.

Speaking of the minimum wage and its increase, he said that a decision on this would be made by early November at the latest.

ZAGREB, Aug 1, 2020 - Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic said on Saturday that he will attend the August 5 commemoration of Operation Storm in Knin as a cabinet member, a Croatian Serb aware of the burden of the war legacy, because he believes the time has come to stop hatred and start building a culture of peace.

Writing on his Facebook page, Milosevic said he is going to Knin because he believes that 25 years after the war it is necessary to stop hatred and war which, unfortunately, for many is not over.

"Children of Serb ethnicity know this best because in their schools they have to endure stigma and feel the guilt just because they are Serbs," Milosevic said.

"I am going because I want to make their future easier. I am going because I think the time is ripe for a policy of understanding and respect to prevail over a policy of hatred," he added.

Milosevic said that during Operation Storm he had been in his native Sibenik, worrying about his father who had been mobilised as a Croatian army soldier, for his friends who were in the Croatian army, and for his relatives who were on the other side.

He said it was difficult for him to make this decision because of his personal family tragedy as his paternal grandmother had been shot dead from close range in the village of Bribirske Mostine in the wake of Operation Storm.

"The murderer was identified accidentally because of his own arrogance, believing that no one would investigate the murder of a Chetnik (Serb) woman, as he himself put it. He was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and got out after 3.5 years following a presidential pardon," Milosevic wrote.

Milosevic said that Operation Storm is not just a military and police operation but also "an enormous collective trauma". For Croats, it is a symbol of the start of long-awaited peace and cessation of occupation, while for Serbs it is a trauma of an exodus, suffering, fear, uncertainty and the impossibility of returning to their homes.

He said he is aware that his attendance in Knin will not change the opposed views on Operation Storm among the majority on both sides, but that he is willing to accept any gesture aimed at promoting tolerance and mutual respect so that "we can confirm ourselves as a democratic society that can achieve co-existence and prosperity regardless of any differences, including those in interpreting our common past."

"Building an atmosphere of reconciliation and dialogue in which we as society must recognise and accept all the victims regardless of their ethnicity, is much more important than my presence in Knin," Milosevic said.

ZAGREB, Aug 1, 2020 - The speech by Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) MP Anja Simpraga in the Croatian parliament, in which she described how she had experienced Operation Storm as a child "from the other side", has attracted great attention because seldom has parliament heard accounts of the Croatian military offensive by members of the Serb minority, Jutarnji List daily said on Saturday.

Although the Croatian public, thanks to independent media and the Hague war crimes tribunal, was aware almost from day one of what was happening during the Croatian liberation operation, including war crimes committed by some Croatian army troops, this speech drew attention to the reasons why it is difficult for the Serb minority in Croatia to participate in celebrations of Operation Storm anniversaries, the newspaper said.

"You can see for yourselves in what kind of society we live in, how young people are growing up," Simpraga told Jutarnji List about her motives to address parliament and the public in such a personal speech.

"The fact that I have a chance to describe the circumstances in which I found myself as well as many other children motivated me to say loud and clear what I said from the parliament rostrum," she said.

Almost paraphrasing General Ante Gotovina after his release from the Hague tribunal's detention unit, Simpraga said: "It's time for us to move on and realise that we no longer live in the war."

Simpraga is the deputy head of Sibenik-Knin County. She entered parliament as a substitute for Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic.

Operation Storm crushed a Serb armed insurgency in central and southern parts of Croatia in August 1995, effectively ending the 1991-1995 war. The operation will be commemorated with a ceremony in Knin, the main Serb stronghold during the war, on August 5, and Deputy PM Milosevic will be attending.

ZAGREB, August 6, 2019 - A dozen activists of several nongovernmental organisations on Monday afternoon held a protest rally in Zagreb's main square to express their sympathy with the victims of the combined military and police operation Storm in August 1995 when Croatia liberated areas in northern Dalmatia, Lika, Banovina and Kordun that had been controlled by Croatian Serb rebels for four years.

"We want to warn that the victory that is being celebrated in recent days is not indisputable and is not so magnificent. It was stained by crimes that have not yet been prosecuted," said activist Bojana Genov of the Women's Network Croatia.

We call for the prosecution of crimes and for defusing war rhetoric, and now when a quarter of a century passed since the war, the time has come to bring the relations back to normal and to develop peace-mongering rhetoric, Genov said.

She also said that during the Operation Storm ethnic cleansing had been conducted and that the future would be burdened unless war crimes were prosecuted.

Activist Nela Pamuković accused the Croatian leadership of hypocritical rhetoric.

"We insist that the government does not invest funds in the military industry and militarism but it should invest funds into the safety and security of all its citizens, into healthcare and other measures," Pamuković said.

Some of the passers-by made insulting comments about the protesters who carried a huge banner with the message "Crimes in Storm are the responsibility of all of us!", however no major incident happened.

More news about Operation Storm can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at a ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin on Monday that the 1995 operation was the moment that changed Croatia's history, telling citizens to awaken the self-confidence that helped them overcome the obstacles at the time and to look at the future with optimism.

"Under the leadership of the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman we liberated one-fifth of the then occupied areas and showed the world that the Croatian people decides about its fate on its own. The Croatian flag at the Knin Fortress told the world boldly that the cradle of the Croatian state... the ancient town of Knin... will forever stay Croatian. And it also (told the world) that the strength of the newly built Croatian army had made it possible to finally complete the historic act of creation of an independent and sovereign Croatian state," Plenković said at the event marking Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day.

He said that Operation Storm was the decisive endeavour that secured the survival of the Croatian state and its territorial integrity, a legitimate response to the occupying forces and the final battle that dealt a fatal blow to Great Serbian claims to Croatian territory.

Recalling that Croatia was remembering with pride all Croatian soldiers killed in the war, Plenković told their families that state institutions were working tirelessly to shed light on all war crimes and locate all the missing persons.

Plenković noted that Croatia's coming presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2020 would be dedicated to Croatian defenders.

He said that Croatia was oriented towards the future and towards building a more just and more solidarity-based society.

"We want a prosperous, demographically vital and poverty-free country, we are working to strengthen the rule of law because we want a more equitable Croatia, free of corruption and unlawfulness, based on its tradition and identity, and with the political will and strength to include all its minorities and ensure respect for their rights," said the PM.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said in her address at the Knin commemoration that Croatian politicians had the duty to make Croatia a prosperous, free country.

Quoting General Ante Gotovina's statement in which he said that the war was over and that Croatians should turn to the future, Grabar-Kitarović said that the future was primarily the responsibility of politicians but also of all citizens.

"The defenders gave their lives and health so that we could live... in our own, free and democratic country. We were given the responsibility to make Croatia a country where work is valued, where every citizen's dignity is beyond dispute, where Croatian identity and tradition are developed in freedom that fosters initiative, learning and creation and not destructiveness. That is our responsibility and my message today," said the president.

Addressing the commemoration, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said that on the 24th anniversary of Operation Storm Croatians celebrated "their historic achievement with a feeling of unity, pride and joy."

"... today we celebrate the joint act of liberation of Croatian territory occupied by the Serb aggressor and the entire Homeland War," Jandroković said, adding that Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day was also an opportunity to remember the Croatian people's aspirations for independence that had lasted for centuries.

Expressing gratitude to Croatian defenders for self-sacrifice in the defence of their people, Jandroković said that the values for which they had fought should be passed onto young generations.

Croatia's future is up to its people and Croatians must be aware of that, said Jandroković.

"Our homeland must be a country that protects its identity, tradition and values on which it was founded, which respects its saints and heroes and objectively evaluates its history, and which rejects the legacy of totalitarian regimes that oppressed it and made it retrograde," Jandroković said, calling for "stronger engagement in the accomplishment of the set goals and for the creation of positive trends and a positive atmosphere in the country."

More news about Operation Storm anniversary can be found in the Politics section.

Today, Croatia celebrates 24 years since its victory over occupiers who harassed and killed civilians for four years by attacking Croatian cities, from Dubrovnik to Vukovar. The anniversary of Operation Storm (Oluja), in which the areas of northern Dalmatia, Lika, Banovina and Kordun were finally liberated from the occupying forces, were celebrated in their own way by the Torcida and Armada groups.

As Morski writes on the 5th of August, 2019, at the beginning of the second half of the match at Poljud in Split between Hajduk and Lokomotiva, Torcida put on a spectacular and interactive choreography show dedicated to the anniversary of Operation Storm and to Homeland Thanksgiving Day.

A large banner attesting to Croatia's destiny to be a free country was displayed, and after the roleplay, in which a Serbian tank is destroyed by a Croatian one, the raising of a large Croatian coat of arms followed. On one side the Croatian flag as raised, and on the other, paper tanks were shown being defeated, set on fire and destroyed. After that, patriotic Croatian songs were played.

On Krk bridge for the third year in a row, at 21:00, Rijeka's Armada marked the anniversary of Operation Storm with some beautiful choreography.

As many as 222 flares lit up the darkness of the night, which honoured all those killed in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County area - 222 people.

''Unlike in previous years, we've made some changes. First of all, we changed the date because even though the correct time to mark the anniversary is August the 5th, a significant number of war veterans couldn't make it to the area around the bridge, because on that day numerous masses were organised, as were visits to the graves of the dead, as well as some sports, cultural and entertainment gatherings. Therefore, we decided to move it to one day earlier, so that everyone who wants to come can attend our spectacle,'' Dejan Božić, president of KN Armada, told Novi List.

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