REMEMBERANCE DAY FOR EXILED AND MURDERED SERBS MARKED IN CHICAGO

CHICAGO, AUGUST 4 /SRNA/ - The 30th anniversary of the Croatian military-police Operation Storm was marked with a ceremonial academy in the Church of Resurrection of Christ in Chicago, and a memorial service was held for the Serbs killed in that operation in 1995.

Previously, Bishop Seraphim of Kostajnica served the Holy Bishop's Liturgy and memorial service for all the Serbs who diedin the period from 1990 to 1999. The organizers are the Chicago Association of Krajina Serbs Prelo and the Congress of Krajina Serbs, and yesterday, in addition to numerous Serbs from Chicago and the surrounding area, as well as their American friends, the consuls general of Serbia and BiH, Marko Nikolić and Tatjana Kaluđerović-Telić, attended the academy. Survivors spoke during the academy, including "children from the column," and two films were shown - "Petrovačka Cesta /Petrovačka Road/" and "Who Divides the Civilian Victims". During the meeting, an exhibition of photographs and documents was organized, which show the consequences of the pogrom, and actors from Serbian theaters from Chicago spoke recorded testimonies, Tanjug reported. The commemoration of the saddest moment in the recent history of Serbia, as stated by the organizers, was an opportunity to remember the killed and expelled Serbs from Western Slavonia at the beginning of May 1995 in the Operation Flash, at a time when that area was under the protection of the UN, as well as the killed and expelled from 13 Western Krajina municipalities in Republika Srpska in September and October 1995. Remembrance Day in Chicago was, as the organizers pointed out, an opportunity to remember 677 old and helpless Serbs killed on their doorstep after the end of military operations, 450 killed and 200,000 Serbs expelled from cities and towns under Croatian control.