DODIK: I DO NOT WANT TO FORGIVE THE SUFFERING OF SERBS IN OPERATION STORM

SREMSKI KARLOVCI, AUGUST 3 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik states he does not want to forgive the suffering of Serbs during the criminal Operation Storm, but emphasized that the Krajina Serbs who survived it keep giving strength to the Serb people today.

“Suffering outside of the trenches did not have to happen. We were being killed simply because we belong to the Serb people,” Dodik said in Sremski Karlovci during the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for all Serbs who were killed and expelled during Croatia’s criminal Operation Storm. Those who survived the criminal Operation Storm, Dodik says, are living proof that Croatia did not succeed. Didok has said the military Operation Storm was planned by the then U.S. administration of Bill Clinton, and that it ended in an exodus in a way that there is no realistic chance for Serbs to return to Croatia. “They fed us the story that they were peacekeepers - not just in Croatia, but in BiH too,” Dodik said. Tonight, Republika Srpska and Serbia are jointly marking the Day of Remembrance for all Serbs killed and expelled during Croatia’s criminal pOeration Storm in Sremski Karlovci. The programme titled “Storm is a Pogrom – We Remember Forever” is taking place at Branko Radičević Square, in the presence of the top officials from Republika Srpska and Serbia. The criminal Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian Army and Police, along with HVO units, in the areas of Banija, Lika, Kordun, and north Dalmatia. The next day, August 5, Croatian forces entered the nearly abandoned town of Knin and raised the Croatian flag, while convoys of refugees were crossing Serb-controlled territories in BiH heading toward Serbia. According to "Veritas", more than 220,000 Serbs were expelled during the Storm. 1,903 names are registered as killed or missing during and after the operation - of whom 1,247 /66%/ were civilians, around three-quarters of whom were over 60 years old. The International Court of Justice, in its February 2015 verdict, classified Operation Storm as ethnic cleansing but not as genocide, although global experts in the field argue that the operation had all the elements of genocide.