{"id":19140,"date":"2025-08-05T22:30:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/?p=19140"},"modified":"2025-08-05T22:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:31:43","slug":"for-the-authorities-in-croatia-and-serbia-victims-exist-only-as-ornaments-of-chauvinist-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/for-the-authorities-in-croatia-and-serbia-victims-exist-only-as-ornaments-of-chauvinist-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"For the authorities in Croatia and Serbia, victims exist only as ornaments of chauvinist politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this tone of commemoration, statements by Croatian officials make no mention of the exodus and killings of Serbian civilians, nor the later prevention of their return. Similarly, statements by Serbian officials make no mention of responsibility for the joint criminal enterprise that resulted in the creation of the so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), nor of the torture and forced mobilization of Serbian refugees from Croatia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Serbia, the anniversary of \u201cOperation Storm\u201d was marked on August 3rd in Sremski Karlovci with a central state commemoration titled \u201cStorm is Pogrom \u2013 We Remember Forever,\u201d jointly organized by Serbia and the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity of Republika Srpska. This commemoration served officials from Belgrade and Banja Luka\u2014Vu\u010di\u0107 and Dodik\u2014as an opportunity to openly mock the rule of law in light of the final conviction of the President of Republika Srpska. On August 1st of this year, Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and six years of political activity ban for signing decrees proclaiming laws previously annulled by the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although President Vu\u010di\u0107 apologized in his speech to the refugees for the redirection of refugee columns away from major Serbian cities, he did not condemn the ethnic engineering of Milo\u0161evi\u0107\u2019s regime\u2014namely, the deployment of Krajina Serbs to Kosovo\u2014nor the torture and forced mobilization to which displaced people were subjected during the summer of 1995 by the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs and paramilitary units. Vu\u010di\u0107 and Dodik, as proof of an alleged continuous international conspiracy against Serbia and Republika Srpska, spoke affirmatively about the \u201csacrifice\u201d of convicted war criminals Radovan Karad\u017ei\u0107, Ratko Mladi\u0107, and Biljana Plav\u0161i\u0107.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 30th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin was marked by speeches from Prime Minister Plenkovi\u0107 and Speaker of Parliament Jandrokovi\u0107, in which they praised the policies of Franjo Tu\u0111man. Following the official speeches, a song by Marko Perkovi\u0107 Thompson was played. The Croatian Prime Minister spoke positively about members of the Serbian community in Croatia who were among the defenders, but did not mention the site of Serbian civilian suffering he visited five years ago\u2014such as the village of Varivode. In his speech, Plenkovi\u0107 stated that Croatia \u201cenabled the return of Croatian Serbs who wished to return,\u201d referencing one of Tu\u0111man\u2019s speeches\u2014a statement particularly cynical in light of the 2015 International Court of Justice ruling that found Croatia\u2019s top officials had planned Operation Storm\u2014including Tu\u0111man himself\u2014regarding the mass exodus of the Serbian population as desirable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaker Jandrokovi\u0107 stated that he was \u201cmoved by the number of young people participating in the military parade in Zagreb and at concerts by Marko Perkovi\u0107 Thompson,\u201d claiming that these young people \u201crespect our faith and church, our tradition and identity,\u201d and that they had embraced the doctrine of Franjo Tu\u0111man. After such statements by Croatia\u2019s top officials, it is no surprise that there is still no condemnation or prosecution of individuals who, ahead of Perkovi\u0107\u2019s concert in Sinj on August 4th\u2014just as was the case in Zagreb\u2014glorified Usta\u0161a war criminals Jure Franceti\u0107 and Maks Luburi\u0107.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A true signal that the authorities in both countries are moving toward peacebuilding will come when we see a monument erected in Knin to honor Serbian civilians\u2014citizens of the Republic of Croatia\u2014who were killed during and after Operation Storm, and when a street in Belgrade named after war-mongering ideologue Brana Crn\u010devi\u0107 is renamed in honor of a victim of the Ov\u010dara war crime committed against Croatian civilians and prisoners\u2014Ru\u017eica Markoba\u0161i\u0107. In December 2022, the Initiative in Serbia submitted a request to the Belgrade Commission for Street and Square Naming for this renaming, but we have not received a response to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We remind the public that exactly 15 years ago, the Initiative in Croatia placed a plaque apologizing to the civilian victims of \u201cOperation Storm.\u201d On this 30th anniversary, we openly call on the City of Knin to begin a dialogue on the official installation of such a commemorative tribute to civilian victims. This is our responsibility toward our fellow citizens whose rights were not only unprotected but were violated in our name. Shedding the burden of crimes and responsibility is a debt that all levels of government in the Republic of Croatia owe\u2014not only to the victims of these crimes, but also to those commanders and soldiers who did not violate international law, as well as to young people and future generations.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia believe that the authorities in both countries have used the 30th anniversary of Operation Storm to, each in their own way, demonstrate chauvinism and a complete abandonment of responsibility toward the victims.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[57,1479],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>For the authorities in Croatia and Serbia, victims exist only as ornaments of chauvinist politics - 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