17 Responses to Serb-Croat problems date back to WWII »»

1. Tony
   Comment by Tony | 2010/07/26 at 23:18:25

   Anna, the problems between Serbs and Croats go further back than what your pro-Serbian propaganda is trying to convince us of.

   Serbia tried to force it’s monarchy on Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Vojvodina, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro in the early 19th century and the dream of a greater Serbia was born well before WWII.

   Serbia never gave up on these territorial ambitions and we have seen the results again. Mass genocide of Serbias neighbours. Now that Serbia is weakend and surrounded by NATO members it will never be able to attack it’s neighbours again. Thank God!

2. Stjepan
   Comment by Stjepan | 2010/08/02 at 12:56:46

   WHOLE topic was a big lie, Vukovar, Ilok, Vinkovci, Osijek, Škabrnja, Sibenik, Dubrovnik …. just speechless cities Serbian revenge, but to start from scratch

   When the second January 1992. Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak and the Yugoslav People’s Army General Andrew Raseta Sarajevo signed an agreement, it was undoubtedly the end of the first stage of war. In this period the Croatian armed groups managed to prevent the Yugoslav Army with the support of rebel Serbs in Croatia in autumn 1991. create a Greater Serbia. They had to satisfy part of the occupied Croatian territory which in December 1991. called Republic of Serbian Krajina. With the mediation of the international community sides who have accepted the arrival of the UN peacekeeping force (UNPROFOR and later UNCRO), which, along with the occupation lines of separation had not done anything worth mentioning. The rebel areas gradually expelled most non-Serbs, mostly Croats, and with it the terror of the large number killed.
   The second stage of war lasted until late autumn 1994th Its feature is mostly in the engagement of the Croatian army in the border areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina and two operations against rebel Croatian Serbs in 1993.: In January in the wider area of Zadar in September near Gospic. In addition to long-term “small war”, the lines touch the Croatian army and rebel Serbs there were no significant conflict or territorial changes.
   During this period the army sides were given the final physiognomy. The Croatian army was organized into three branches: Army, the Croatian Navy and Croatian Air Force and Air Defence. The largest was the Army which consisted of six choral area and very strong bases directly subordinate the General Staff of the Croatian army. It is further divided into Guard (professional), the reserve brigade and maturity and Defense Regiment. Military area generally consisted of 1-2 Guard troops, several reserve brigades and regiments and home guard units for support. In December 1994. The Croatian Army had about 95,000 people. Battles of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was the equivalent of more infantry brigade without the support characteristic of the army.
   Military forces of the rebel Croatian Serbs – Serbian Army of Krajina – was organized into six corps and the Army Air Force from the Air Defence. Corpora were similar military district of the Croatian army, consisted of several brigades and means of support, mainly divizijuna. The Commander of the Army of Serbian Krajina had some 14,000 people. In addition to the military part of the battle had and the Ministry of Interior of Krajina, which had a special brigade of militia.
   Since the arrival and deployment of UNPROFOR in Croatia conducted intensive political negotiations 1994th on the inclusion of Krajina in Croatia the legal system, which proved to be fruitless. Political representatives of the rebel Serbs obstructed them in all possible ways, with the proviso that they are going to stop support of the international community on an equal blame and responsibility for Croatian Serbian rebellion. All this snažilo military option as the only possible solution to the Serbian rebellion. Obstacles to it were the commitment of the Croatian and the reluctance of the international community as such a move seemed very risky. In late autumn 1994th wartime events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially the fate of Bihac, which is surrounded by a fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a very difficult position and under constant pressure from the military forces of Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian Serbs, was favored by Croatia to engage some assistance surrounded the city, which is next to the United Nations had no guarantee that the “protected” area. For Croatia the status of Bihac was extremely important and its maintenance of the Croatian army’s logistical engaged since the summer 1992nd Bihac has prevented a full touch Serbian Army of Krajina and the Army of the Republic of Serbian. In the event of termination of the pockets of both the Serbian army would receive part of the forces that could engage in other parts of the battlefield, which would have significantly complicated the position of Croatian, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
   Direction for the engagement of the Croatian Army in Bosnia and Herzegovina is imposed by itself. He was not allowed to directly intervene, which was chosen method for indirect assistance, for which at that time all the conditions existed. At the beginning of November 1994. Croatian Defence Council was joined by attacking the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Republic of Serbian Army in southwestern Bosnia and operation
   Cincar released most of the Kupres plateau. This allowed the use of elements of the Croatian army in the Livno area. The idea of their use, in addition to strength of Serbian forces, was the possibility of attacks by Serbian Livno, which could jeopardize the success of the Croatian Defence Council on Kupres, which would also more difficult defensive position Corps Split. Therefore, the Split Military District got homework to do over time is disabled. Split Military District was one of the strong operational structure of the Croatian army, and whose jurisdiction extended from Velebit and Dinara. Because of its great features choir area was mobilized fifty percent, while his main forces were the fourth and 7 Guard brigades. Fourth was the domicile of units, on 7 was added to podstožerna unit of General Staff of the Croatian army. Naval task Corps Split was released from an area of central and northern Dalmatia. The task also had great symbolic meaning because the area was the city of Knin, which was from 1990. the center and synonym Serb rebellion in Croatia. Until then, the basic idea of engagement Split Military District was on the line © Sibenik – Drnis – Knin. By joining elements of the Croatian army in Livno field line that was pushed into the background because it is open to new and better direction of Sinj – Bosansko Grahovo – Knin. In this direction were Section 2 Krajina Corps of the Army of the Republic of Serbian which is connected with the Dinara 7th the North Serbian Army of Krajina Corps.
   The operating cycle of the Livno field operations and Flash
   A few months Split Military District is the active defense is a short but very effective attack suppress Serbian forces in the depth of Livno field towards Bosnian Grahovo. The first of these attacks, operacijaZima-94, has been implemented for a period of 29 November to 24th prosinca 1994. The attack was carried out from the edges of fields and along the Livno dinars, and during this attack, Bosnian Serb forces had dropped by about 20 kilometers in depth Livno field. Most of the Livno field with the elevations Staretina Dinara was placed under the control of Croatian forces. But his biggest success has been achieved indirectly: weaken the Serbian pressure on Bihac. Then a few months carried out an active defense in which the contact line has changed several times in favor of the Croatian Army. It was a local corrections lines, the first significant move was the one-day action jump-1, which was conducted seventh April 1995. Released an area of about 75 square miles and increased stability of the line Split Military District.
   After several months of systematic cold showers from the Croatian forces in the Livno area, followed by a new blow to Croatia, in western Slavonia. Military District Bjelovar, reinforced by forces from the choir area and Zagreb and Osijek podstožernim Forces Chief of Staff, conducted a first and 2 Flash operation in May. The operation was successfully performed. In a few days free from the entire occupied territory of Western Slavonia, and the force on 18 Serbian Army of Krajina Corps were broken and captured or forced to withdraw to Bosnia. Operation Flash is set some standards that are applied, and the Storm. Osijek Military District operation was secured from possible attacks of 11 Slavonia and Baranja Serbian Army of Krajina Corps of the defensive wall surgery. In the same function and strength were the Croatian Defence Council, the Corps Orašje. During the operation 11th Slavonia and Baranja Corps combat readiness was raised, and several units of the Yugoslav Army took to camping out in the Srem and Vojvodina. Most active were the Bosnian Serbs on 5 May began to attack the forces of the Croatian Defence Council in Bosanska Posavina. Planned to go to the right bank of the Sava River in order to obtain the operating base for the transition in Croatia for Spa?va clipping noise and the convergence of the force on 11 Slavonia and Baranja Serbian Army of Krajina Corps. According to Croatian intelligence, the attacks were conducted under a secret name of revenge.
   While the continued operation Flash, rebel Serbs have demonstrated a strategy of real threats rocket attack on Zagreb, which killed civilians, which had no effect on the implementation of the operation. The release of Western Slavonia was a heavy blow to the Krajina. Its president Mile Martic in a letter to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, she will write that “the tragedy that has befallen the Serbian people with the latest Croatian aggression in western Slavonia is serious and unpredictable consequences for the solution of the entire Serbian issues. Not only is the lost territory and not only killed hundreds of civilians, what in this moment of horror restlessness makes it even bigger is so widespread belief among the people of the Serbian question were issued, and by the Serbs themselves. Along the Border spread the voice of its tradition and people with disbelief, concluding that we had forgotten, and Serbia and the Serbian Republic. In many villages and towns people are packed and ready for migration “.
   Requested the military assistance that was partly obtained. Army commander General Celeketic replaced by a new commander, Lieutenant General Mile Mrksic known as Task Force Commander of the JNA, which was in November 1991. occupied Vukovar. Mrkši? improved the organization of Serbian Army of Krajina by the Corps established special units modeled on similar to the Yugoslav Army. In addition, in all the corps began to form a battalion for the intervention of forces from the composition of each brigade. The deadline for their structure was the 28 July and to 25 July each brigade had to establish a reserve to bataljunsku water, a brigade-level band with a water tank “to maneuver the front and closing vulnerable direction.” One measure of precaution, which is undoubtedly the general, preserved in the 11th commandment Commander Infantry Brigade of the Serbian Army of Krajina from the soldiers of the 1st August 1995. to block the power UNCRO, disarmed and held as hostages. In addition to the army, the Croatian attack were prepared and civilian structures Krajina. Republican Headquarters of Civil Protection on 2 August 1995. ordered the evacuation of material goods, archives, movable cultural property and funds.
   Aware that after the liberation of Western Slavonia in line comes the rest of the Krajina, he started receiving volunteers, and from 1 June 1995. and mobilization of conscripts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, who after 17 August 1990. abandoned the Krajina. In order to raise morale was held at the military parade on the training ground on Vidovdan Slunj, 28 June 1995., which was introduced Corps Special Forces and was well received among the people and the army. The first operational task of the new Serbian commander was a continuation of the attack on Bihac. In the area of Cazin Krajina, with the Serbian Army of Krajina, a long time been engaged Task Force Spider led by General Mile Novakovic, and the establishment of special units of the Corps is also introduced in the fight as a Task Force 2nd The attacks on the Bihac participated in a group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.
   The reason for this decision was the result of Serbian efforts to solve the problem in BiH Bosniak pockets like this will do in Srebrenica, but the reaction to the actions of the Croatian Army in June in the Livno area. In fact, since 4 to 11 June Split Military District conducted a tactical operation Leap-2 with which the Livno field as a whole placed under its supervision and also broke the Glamoc and Bosansko Grahovo. It is directly affected roads Bosanski Petrovac – Drvar – Strmica – Knin, which threatened the complete isolation of a busy western part of Krajina. In these circumstances, the prominent and strategically important areas of western Bosnia in which the 5th Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina co-ordinated action of the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina and the Serbian Army was brought in a very difficult situation. For both of the Serbian army, as in Bosnia and in Croatia, successfully solving the “problem” of western Bosnia had the release of substantial force on 2 Krajina Corps of the Bosnian Serb army, which subsequently could be used in the southern part of the Corps zone of responsibility, according to Corps units Split and the Croatian Defence Council. The same was true with and engaged force on 15 Lika, 21 Kordun and 39 banijskog Army Corps of Serbian Krajina, which would free the applied force to the battlefield and focusing them towards the borders of Krajina. Success would be withdrawn and a powerful moral effect on the Serbian army, which for a long period of time, the “western borders Serbdom” recorded only defeats.
   The greatest testimony to threaten Bihac was ready to Bosnians after several years of war, conclude the first military agreement with the Croatian. In Split on 22 July signed an agreement that Sarajevo was “legalized” the presence of Croatian army in Bosnia. The effects of the agreement came after three days. Split Military District and the Croatian Defence Council 25th July, went on the offensive operation Summer-95 with which they do 30 July took Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoc and their wider regions. The Army of the Republic of Serbian dropped deeper into Bosnia, and Knin has lost the most important road and hinterland is less than a year earlier was perhaps her most steady, if not a purely military one, then no doubt psychologically. Croatian Army in Knin road was open.
   Croatian Heads do not doubt that reintegration will not occur, and that because of the inaction of the Croatian forces in western Bosnia can only worsen the overall balance of power, who never before had been so favorable. At the political level, the last attempt at a peaceful resolution of problems of rebel areas was made on 3 August 1995. in Geneva ®. Croatian delegation at the negotiations requested: peaceful reintegration of the occupied territories, the opening of all roads in the occupied territory, the application of the Croatian Constitution on the whole Croatian territory, the implementation of constitutional law for the Serbian ethnic community, the Croatian authorities guarantee political, civil and national rights. Responses were obtained from the Croatian side were rated unsatisfactory. Task release temporarily occupied territories of Croatia won the Croatian army.
   Krajina in anticipation of the Storm
   Croatian Serb rebel attack could not be a surprise. State of war on the entire territory of Krajina was proclaimed on 28 July 1995. “Performed a complete mobilization of the Serbian Army of Krajina unit are in full combat readiness. The Croatian army has achieved significant success in Glamocko Grahovo-direction and time of our forces has led to an adverse operative and strategic position. I continue to perform concentration and grouping of the Croatian army on the borders of the Krajina, especially in the southern battlefield, “he says in a statement the General Staff of the Serbian Army of Krajina from 31 July 1995. Units of Serbian Krajina Army banned the holiday that could be used only to set up in the fighting schedule. The Croatian Serbs attack the computer from the beginning of July and the end of the month is expected either at the highest level. For example Command 39th banijskog 25th Corps July informed the sub-bands that will “almost certainly” The Croatian Army attack 7th Northern Corps 26th or 27 July and, probably, at approximately the time desantirati special units to the area of Bihac.
   Units for electronic surveillance of the Croatian Army, which have been extensively monitored radio traffic in Krajina at the end of July, concluded that “from all civil conversation with Lika shows that among the civilian population in the area fear the government, and almost could be said of the attacks and panic Government troops. Consequently, there are apparently routes for evacuation, but as in all other discussions not possible to know anything about what would be of intelligence interest, but they are usually working on hearsay. It is said that people are physically and mentally exhausted permanent psychosis and expectation of attack and are on the verge of power. ” During the night 28./29.srpnja expecting an attack by the Croatian Army Sunje and Glina. During the 29th July was noted that the buses transferred thousands of women and children from Knin in the direction of Belgrade. A day later, 30 July, there was a declaration of war on the territory of Krajina. The same amount of data on anxiety and panic (around Krnjak the population began to prepare for escape). The day before the third surgery August, Radio Petrinja announcing the attack of the Croatian army in Krajina. Fourth of July at 00:30 hours, there were the 21st KORDUNSKI Serbian Army of Krajina Corps has learned that the attack of the Croatian Army begins fourth August at 5 pm. Preparations for the evacuation of civilians have continued, and it was noted that members of the Serbian police refuge families in BiH. It is noted that over the bridges in Bosnia admit only women and children. The same day indicated that the population Palace ready for evacuation.

3. Stjepan
   Comment by Stjepan | 2010/08/02 at 12:58:45

   Storm

   In mid-May changed the name a secret directive to the liberation of occupied Croatian territory from Flash uOluja. After the liberation of Western Slavonia, part of the available power is re-apportioned and used to strengthen areas of choral Split, Osijek, Zagreb, Karlovac and Gospic. Croatian troops were given the task by a single concept and objectives: liberate the occupied territory of the Croatian region of Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun and Subdivisions with a crucial defense in Slavonia and southern Dalmatia. In the initial phase of the operation of them is wanted and expected a quick break in the schedule of Serbian forces and the exclusion from the use of their artillery-missile systems to prevent the destruction of industrial facilities and cities that they were in range. It is more or less any hot on all parts of the battlefield, because the larger cities of Zadar, Gospic, Sisak, Karlovac were in direct range artillery, nor the Croatian capital was unattainable for the rocket attack, “Hurricane” or surface-to-surface missile, which the rebel Serbs have demonstrated several times, the last time first May 1995. The second phase of the operation implied the expansion of the wedges that broke the first line of defense, the introduction of new forces and continued attacks by the state border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. At this stage, the expected splitting of the Serbian forces, interception of the roads, followed by the final part of the operation: the destruction of residual forces and securing the border. This is particularly significant on any round the Bihac enclave since the merger with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina gained a much wider circle than it would be that it was not. Task merger is expected in the area of Lika and Subdivisions.
   The rest of the Croatian Army, especially forces on the eastern and southern part of Croatian, had a duty to make sure that the majority of the Croatian forces not to be harassed by the Yugoslav Army and the Army of the Republic of Serbian. Defensive task Osijek Military District was called Fenix, and the Southern Front breeze. Defensive task Corps Osijek was sensitive due to plain, tenkoprohodnog lands and parts of the Yugoslav army camps in Vojvodina and Srem. Therefore, the defense set up two defensive belts that are posjele reserve units, while two Guard brigades were in the operational reserve to counterattack with the task of Serbian forces in case they break through the Croatian defense line.
   Task Serbian Army of Krajina was a simple, decisive defense to defend a territory in 1991. for them temporarily occupied by the JNA, and sometimes even go on the attack and make the correct line in order to obtain greater stability of Krajina. Defense is mostly based on strong natural obstacles, which, after breaking the Croatian attack should strengthen the rivers Kupa and Sava rivers in the provinces of Mreznica Kordun, Velebit mountain range as part of the coast between Sibenik and © Biograd. In the area of Slavonia was planned even Spa?va cutting of forests and access to the Sava River to connect with the forces of Bosnian Serbs. The attack was supposed to support a very strong task force of the Yugoslav Army.
   Before starting operations forces UNCRO were informed that the operation was started. Storm began at 5 pm 4th August, when the majority of the Croatian army reinforced by special police forces launched an attack along the long lines of the Bosnian beans to the south to the east of Jasenovac. Osijek Military District and the southern battlefield simultaneously moved to defense. Oklopništva infantry attack was preceded by heavy artillery preparation on the front line and the depth distribution of Serbian, as well as attack aircraft at their center connection, command center and warehouse.
   After the operation began, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman has sent a message to the Croatian citizens of Serbian nationality. Members of the Serbian Army urged to surrender weapons, with the guarantee that they will be udijeljena amnesty under Croatian law. All those who have not actively participated in the rebellion were invited to stay at their homes without fear and welcome the Croatian authorities.
   Sector Banovina
   Due to the close line battlefield and relative Zagreb, Sisak, task Subdivisions release was particularly sensitive. It was necessary to prevent the artillery-missile strikes on populated areas, which could make only one way: fast break by Serbian forces on the line of contact, which automatically meant the withdrawal of their artillery and the depth of the battlefield. Therefore, the rate was a fundamental requirement is set before the power of Corps of Zagreb which is the expected leading role in liberating Subdivisions. The attack began from the direction of Sunja and quickly spread along the entire line battlefield, Croatian forces have entered the main part of the forces in the Zone of Separation and acquired part of the road Petrinja – Clay. And that was all the great expectations; 2 Guard Brigade of Croatian army, known as thunder, suddenly stopped on the outskirts of Petrinja. Discussions about the reasons even now are not uncommon in military circles and among the participants of the war. According to some opinions of Corps Commander Zagreb did not understand a directive for the attack, the others acted arbitrarily, for the third, nothing unusual has happened. Really it was a combination of self-will and less misunderstanding of the operating plan. Rather than cut Petrinja and attempt to prevent intervention by Clay, 2 Guards Brigade was sent to the unnecessary occupation of Petrinja. Is stuck, lacking the expected deeper penetration, and the Military District were left without some kind of “front men” who had to withdraw additional forces in the attack, would be a major force attacks. Thus the deadlock Gromovanepovoljno reflect the rhythm of the attack, more or less the entire Corps. Despite that, they did not realize Croatian fears of heavy artillery attacks in the cities and industrial plants in mesh fronts, although in Sisak Serb artillery damaged plants Thermal power stations and refineries.
   Caused the crisis is resolved the person Vrhovnik Tudjman. According to his commandments, 5 August, Lieutenant General Peter Stipeti? appointed commander in chief in Subdivisions under whose command came to power choral category Bjelovar and Zagreb. Stipetic was during 1993. and 1994. commanded the military district of Zagreb and the use of force in the provinces for him was not unknown. Its arrival forces prestrojene, defused the crisis by Petrinja, followed by a second Guard brigades went into depth Subdivisions under the earlier ideas. Forces around Sunje are intensified, and the direction towards Glina introduced two new brigades. No damage was committed and did not give correct. Enabled the almost complete extraction of the 39th combat techniques banijskog Corps and Special Forces Corps of the Army of Serbian Krajina.
   Happiness in an accident the first day of Operation Storm was a function of Corps Bjelovar which suddenly became a “hero of the day.” It is the 4th August, the first day of operations, successfully forced the river Sava in the Department of Jasenovac – Drenov side and penetrated two kilometers in combat schedule Serbian forces in the direction towards Croatia Dubica. We should not forget that the violent passage of the river and the Guards Brigade demanding task, and those days, in the opinion of many, especially the 125th Home Defense Regiment from Novska proved to be a professional, rather than reserve units. By the end of the Military District Bjelovar was provided for the release of Croatian Dubica, which was conducted on the morning of 5th August. The new goal was Croatia Kostajnica. Released in the evening 6th August, which ended in Bjelovar Military District of attack operations. He joined the determination reached the line, securing the state border and the cleaning of the liberated area between the Sava and Una.
   During the sixth August and Zagreb Corps forces have begun to record more successes. In the morning liberated Petrinja and a number of villages, which allowed the penetration direction Kostajnica – Dvor and Petrinja – Clay – Dvor. Subdivisions entered the area is part of Karlovac Corps forces that have successfully completed the operation on the line Ogulin – Slunj. Their task was the protection of inland and left-side first Guards Brigade, having rejoined the force on 5 Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a wider Rakovice directed to attack the soldiers.
   The morning of 7th August Chief of Staff of the Croatian army commanded a ceasefire in the area Vojnic – Vrginmost – Clay – Kostajnica – court because it sought general UNCRO Peter Peeters, apparently because they sought to rebel Serbs in the 21st Kordun Corps, which pulled in the provinces. Zagreb Military District had to prepare a brigade strength brigade that is deployed on arrival in the wider area of the village, block and allow it to go over the bridge only unarmed people, and officers and noncommissioned officers with guns. All other weapons and military equipment in the presence of UNCRO should be submitted to the Croatian Army. Quickly it became obvious that the agreement does not have anything. General Stipeti? the whole day waiting in vain Serbian mission, it has not arrived. Appreciating that this is fake, which the Serbs are trying to gain the time, Chief of Staff of the Croatian Army withdrew the order of cease-fire and ordered the continuation of the attack to “break the enemy on the Subdivisions and discharge at the borders of the Republic in accordance with Croatian previously given orders.” The attack was continued during the day are relieved of the settlement between Glina and Petrinja and Dvor na Uni. By joining forces with the fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not occur just because of missing columns of Serbian refugees on the road from clay to Dvor na Uni. Dvor na Uni Serbian forces were able to establish up to eighth in the evening August last bridgehead through which pulled the 39th Banija Corps and most of the Corps of special units. Weapons and equipment given to the Bosnian Serb army.
   North of the Palace of organized resistance to Serbian forces were reported. Submit 21st Kordun corps agreed on 8 August and was implemented in the next two days. By the end of the 10th August 1995. The units of the Croatian army in the zone of responsibility of the Area Zagreb, broke out at the borders of the Croatian and organized her defense. Neraš?iš?ena remained Petrova Gora by the remaining part of the Serbian Army of Krajina to 14 August cleared the Special Police forces and the choir in Zagreb and Karlovac.
   Sector Kordun
   First day operations forces military district of Karlovac Ogulin battlefield Plaški They surrounded and put under the control of road Slunj – PrimiSlje – Perjasica. The front part of Karlovac first attack he had suffered a setback, after which he spent realignment of forces and transfer of attacks in the interfluve Mrežnice the Koran into the direction of the village Krnjku and further to the soldiers. It was a departure from the original plan of operation, which was initiated by other forces on the battlefield Karlovac. On the fifth of August are exempt Plaski, PrimiSlje and interfluve Korana and Mrežnice. At the same time force on 5 Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council of the Bihac pocket, cross the road Slunj – Titova Korenica, which is 21 KORDUNSKI Corps lost a possible retreat by Lika. Afternoon 6th August 1st Guard brigades in the rural area Trži?ka Raštela together with force on 5 Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The brigade was then continued by Slunj which was released together with the forces of the Corps Karlovac Ogulin part of the battlefield. On the seventh of August was freed Kamensko, Tušilovi?, Krnjak, Veljun and soldiers. Army Fikret Abdic around Cazin completely destroyed and several thousands of refugees, the soldiers withdrew, where he stopped and blocked by the forces of Corps Karlovac.
   From 8 August Karlovac Corps forces engaged on the cleansing of the wider area and Vojni? Vrginmost, and then to control the border and kept clean of Petrova Gora.
   Sector Lika
   Gospic Military District operation began an attack on the eight directions and winning significant elevation on the front line battlefield. The intersection is part of the road to the end of the day took the Beavers, most of the pass Ljuba and threaten New Li?ki Osik. On the fifth of August the attack was successfully continued, was released and his love of broad area, Licka Jasenica, Saborsko, New Li?ki Osik and Ostrovica, broken road Plitvice Lakes – Slunj and Vrhovine are surrounded. Special police forces were acquired communication hub Gracac. During the sixth August reached a junction with the force on 5 Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Grabovac and compensation. Freed from the Malovan, Bruvno, Korenica, Vrhovine, Plitvice Lakes, Cetingrad Krbava and Udbina, Barle, Vrebac, Mogori?, Blackboard and Plo?anski Klanac. From the composition of the Gospic Military District went out on 1 Guards Brigade and went to Slunj.
   On the fourth day operations continued progress toward the state border. Part of the power exercised by cleaning the area, asanaciju and collecting booty. About 18 hours of the Gospic Military District troops, in cooperation with the police special forces liberated the Donji Lapac and broke the frontier, and she was released Mazin, Dobroselo and Upper Lapac. This is the task of the Gospic Military District was completed. Released for the entire area of the Gaza Corps. Special police took the Kulen Vakuf and possess proof point in the wider area of the village. The next day was organized defense of state borders, cleaning osl
   asanirano battlefield, raised cattle and booty and pull out the damaged weapons and equipment.
   Sector Dalmatia
   Compared to other Croatian operational formations, operations Split Military District had two characteristics. First, was conducted under the name
   Shallot-95, not Storm. Second, the forces were divided into four task groups that bear the names of the routes of attack, or places from which they began operation. Task Force were called: Zadar, © Sibenik, Sinj and Norton. The main directions of attack were: Bosnia Grahovo – Knin, where they attacked the 4th and 7 Guard brigades as the strongest power OZ; direction Jasenice – Miškovci and Uniški come – Destroy – Kiev. The largest number of forces but was in one of the eight extra lines. The day before surgery, 3 August, the Croatian Defense Council forces attacked the Serbs in the direction bosanskohergova?ke Glamoc – Vitorog with the aim of holding and hiding the real intention of the Croatian Army.
   During the first day of operation, 4 August, Split Military District forces broke the defense line Knin Krajina Corps of the Serbian army in all directions of attack and grasped the line at a depth of 4 km from the starting position. Special police forces on the Velebit mountain from the force on 2 9th Battalion Guards Brigade occupied the dominant elevation Tulove Beams and Alan Little. At the end of the first day of operation have been created favorable conditions for the liberation of Knin and seventh interception northern Serbian Army of Krajina Corps.
   According to Serbian sources, most of the Serbian forces withdrew quickly and without struggle. One of them, Vrli?ka brigades withdrew without having had contact battle with Croatian forces, even claiming that the battlefield had left so skillfully that the Croatian forces took more than 24 hours prior to and understand. According to the same sources, like the Pony and the rest of the corpus, withdrew without a fight, manpower is the family picked up and headed in the general “bježaniju. The exception was only Benkova?ko Brigade, which is only brought the army.
   On the fifth morning of August reached the greatest success of the operation: 7 Guard brigade to force on 4 Guards Brigade liberated Knin. The symbolic importance of the success was the most valuable and most rang: The History of Krajina was terminated. Northern Serbian Army of Krajina Corps was completely shattered, and the larger places are exempt Vrlika, Drnis and Benkovac. Broken Serbian forces withdrew towards Lika and Bosnia. By the end of the Split Military District was practically carried into practice the majority of their tasks. The next two days the Split Military District is more – or less were inactive, as the rebel Serbs used to derive the bulk via Otri? 7th Battalion techniques Northern and 15 Lika Corps. Line Village Otri? – Strmica met on 7 August, a day later on the routes Otri? – Srb and Knin – Srb Croatian army forces broke out on the frontier, “which is definitely a set of tasks performed.” Followed by the establishment, realignment of power and cleaning of free space.

4. Stjepan
   Comment by Stjepan | 2010/08/02 at 13:01:41

   Effect of Force
   The principal task of the Croatian Air Force aircraft was on the main lines of attack; airline paljbena Army support forces, aerial reconnaissance from space, transportation by air – in order to maneuver Army forces, with a view to the evacuation of the wounded. The defensive part of the mission was the protection of space Zagreb – Karlovac – Sisak – Kutina. Croatian Air Force was first involved with the entire human and material resources, a battle was active with the whole Croatian territory. As part of preparation, flight crews are specially prepared to fly at low altitudes and sweeping flight.
   To carry out the tasks to be managed by Air Force with 17 fighter jets, combat helicopters, 5, 9 transport helicopters, three transport aircraft, one aircraft for electronic reconnaissance and one helicopter for electronic-thermal reconnaissance.
   During the operation successfully battle operated by the planned facilities (the communication and command post Serbian troops). These were attacks by some Serbian authors have declared an attack against NATO aircraft, and one of them later without any criticism and accept some Croatian authors. In the further course of the operation Aviation operated as planned and on remand, and committed 67 combat flights, as part of which was destroyed by 26 different buildings. For the task of air defense was made 50 flights with no battlefield action. For the reconnaissance mission was carried out seven flights of aircraft and helicopters. For the purpose of transporting completed 11 helicopter flights which transported about 480 people and about 85 tons of cargo.
   The weakest part of the Air Force has been using outdated equipment of air surveillance and guidance because it was not possible to provide monitoring of the air space below the height of 500 m, or guiding the aircraft below the height of 1000 m. During the operation there were no losses in manpower and technology, although the damage to 11 aircraft MIG -21.
   Intelligence
   Storm was the crown of long-term effects Intelligence Administration of General Staff of the Croatian army. She has long years of painstaking work and continued collecting data on the opponent. The collected data are regularly submitted for review and use of appropriate levels of command. In preparing the operation was carried out linking the intelligence organs of the headquarters of all the participating bands in a single reporting system, which is available to provide information in real time. Part of the intelligence bodies reinforced with analysts from the Intelligence Administration. Unit unmanned aircraft Chief of Staff of the Croatian army carried out the aerial mapping of objects in the depths of the enemy a timetable. Reconnaissance-sabotage of General Staff of the Company is engaged in the operation of the Lika battlefield. During the implementation of the operation was successfully realized analysis of data that are used in special warfare missions. Involved seven groups of electronic interference, and the use of unmanned aircraft was achieved guiding artillery fire and opponent detection of colon and areas of concentration forces. Given the constraints of a technical nature, intelligence and security operations of Tempest has been rated excellent rating.
   The departure of the Serbs and the work of the military police against misconduct
   Is Storm operations of ethnic cleansing of Serbs? This is an issue on which it is not possible to answer only krozOluju. It must be placed in the context of the period from the onset of SAO Krajina to the disappearance of the Republic of Serbian Krajina. In this period the rebel Serbs in Croatia showed massive response in the declaration against the co-existence with the Croats, the mass had participated in armed rebellion and massive left the Croatian. The evening of 4th August 1995. Croatian army electronic surveillance intercepted a message that the “orders of Milan Martic started … organized” evacuation “of women, children and elderly,” which was accurate information. It should be noted that this was the first day of operation in which the Serbian Army of Krajina and generally resisted the universal signs of the collapse could not see. For such confirmation has been sufficient evidence and it is clear that it will be around this long lead discussions with the advance to take a stand.
   But it can not be denied that in the final operations, and later, any behavior that should be legally sanctioned. To 10 September 1995. Followed by the Military Police and crime dealt with 1576 people. “Criminal investigation, in cooperation with the SIS and the MUP of Croatia, the criminal complaint and a separate report, accompanied by judicial authorities, a total of 659 persons reasonably suspected of criminal acts perpetrated at the expense of Croatian.” The liberated territory by military police because nestegovnog behavior detained 558 members of the Croatian army, of which 262 were retained. 445 filed a disciplinary report, searched 1059 members of the Croatian Army and alienated from the 669 seized assets with the released area. In cooperation with the Criminal Police and the Government conducted the criminal investigation of 321 criminal offense, of which: 13 murders, 18 cases suffering members of the Croatian Army accident, 191 arson, 13 mining and 86 other crimes (mostly property theft). “From the known perpetrators of these crimes were 79 members of the Croatian Army, and 274 cases of civilians.” Part of improper conduct committed by members of the BiH Army. On the seventh it is still August HQ UNCRO warned the General Staff of the Croatian army, and requested the General Staff of the Croatian Army to ask the 5th Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina to “stop this flagrant violation of international law committed on Croatian territory against innocent civilians” because “actions of the Bosnian troops destroy the confidence which your government is trying to encourage the Croatian Serb population.”
   Insurance operations and activities of Bosnian Serbs and the Yugoslav Army
   At the end of the expected support the main part of the Army of Serbian Krajina was nothing. Slavonia and Baranja corps refrained from attacks, restricted to pedestrian and occasional artillery harassment Croatian defense setup. Registered and enters the zone of separation, and the river Drava Serbs let the floating mine. Only the Bosnian Serb forces intervened seriously 7th August, when the Air Force attacked units of the Croatian Army on the Sava River and the town of Kutina, Virovitica, Pozega and upanja ®.
   The implementation of mobilization
   The mobilization of reservists for Operation Storm and Operation Fenix defense and Mistral began on 28 July, when the Croatian Army troops were 58,040 conscripts. The plans provided for the mobilization manning 112,656 reservists. The Defense sent out around 153,506 Croatian mobilizacijskih call, one of which was given to 121,730. Of these, the management report for the defense, the war units responded to reserving 111,391, which amounts to 72.6 percent from the number dialed calls, or 98.9 percent of the manning plan. A total of 169,431 for the operation Olujamobiliziran reserving. Lowest turnout was in Zagreb, the biggest in Virovitica.
   For the period, a time of holidays, which meant that some conscripts at the time of delivery mobilizacijskog call will not be in the place of residence, were sent more than 40,850 calls manning plans. Mobilization showed that the offices of defense for part of reservists did not exist updated information on personal status (address, place of employment), that the units were delivered to the office of their list of previously mobilized reservists, etc.
   that the units are not accepted by the volunteers, despite the fact that they were not completely filled pri?uvnicima and almost all offices due to lack of defense workers were not able to perform demanding tasks of mobilization – in part because of the lack of IT equipment.
   With regard to the mobilization of motor vehicles, it was determined that we should mobilize the 12,606 motor vehicles, and the result was to be able to mobilize 6580 vehicles, or 52.2 percent of the required number.

5. Stjepan
   Comment by Stjepan | 2010/08/02 at 13:18:04

   Respected friends!!! WHAT IS AN INNOCENT MAN DOING IN PRISON?!
   .
   Esteemed friends, this Easter we all await with our families as those ones who defended our homeland as well as the ones who partook in the agressor army. But my friend General Ante Gotovina yet his fifth Easter awaits without his family, imprisoned in the Netherlands for some alleged crime which he himself didn’t do. In other words it means that he as a innocent person lies in the prison, so this procedure of the International Court reminds me of of the procedure done before two thousand years when a just man who helped all of them was sentenced. But look at the names and family names fo the judges Ponitie Pilat and Carla del Ponte. I’m not that much against Carla del Ponte for she did her job, but still I’m angrier with our home traitors and
   high treason of persons, but I don’ know after what logic they sit at the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) and the Government who are rewsponsible for capture and delivering of Croatian hero, Balkan hero, a European hero and might be of the whole world. The greatest absurd of all is that the Serbean General of a tank brigade escaping before our Croatian forces under caterpillars of his tanks smashed some civilians who as fugitives were rushing in direction of Bosnia, though they shouldn’t have done it so for they had no reason to try to escape for the deceased President Dr. F.Tu?man promised in his name and in the name of the Croatian abolition for all crimes that they had done over Croatian nation. The crushed over civilians, women old men and childrenw were shown as victims of the cannon fire of the Croatian Army, what wasn’t true.
   The members of the International forces who were as tampon zone among the war parties played a bad and shamefu role who had top be neutral mostly served to one side, and for that unfair act won money and Serbean medals, to also get medals in their own countries as fair soldiers and officers. And they were cowerds and liers in fact. Take for example Srebrenica massacre at least.
   Hadn’t Croatian general Ante Gotovina on reuqest of American and European polititians and generals attacked the Serbean forces and so broke the ring around Sarajevo and weakened the Serbean forces in the whole BiH, in the war would be involved more European and world states and it would be a European and the world war. The European polititians know this but stil they further hold in prison the honest General Ante Gotovina. While the real criminal Serbean general Novakovi?, Commander of the tank corpus freely and without any sanctions lives in his Serbia and his missdeed is Savo Štrbac, the president of Veritas imputed it to Croatian side and General Ante Gotovina.
   Gentleman judges, set free the innocent man from your prison to celebrate Easter with his family. You respected lady, forgetting that the war in 1945 received the partisans in Dalmatia, Serbia in 1993 was 100,000 Chetniks who collaborated and worked with the Italians, you forget in 1991, to create a “Greater Serbia, along with supporting memorandum SANO SOC. We have not forgotten scholars in particular Dobriša Cosic, the late Milosevic was just a pawn, like pawns Karadzic and Seselj, if you want your arguments to hold a lecture from the Yugoslavian history, we’ll do it, but please, when you’re lying, lie to roll
   Proofs:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=uFS8PICXpms
   Thank you very much indeed, Please I will like you to accept this token with good faith as this is from the bottom of my heart. Thanks and God bless you and your family.
   Hope to hear from you soon.
   Your’ s Faithfully,
   tokic.stjepan2@gmail.com

6. Michael
   Comment by Michael | 2010/09/02 at 09:56:53

   Dear Tony,

   I fail to see your point that Serbia carried out mass genocide of its neighbours given that BOTH Croatia and Kosovo have ethnically cleansed the Serbian population within their borders in the last Balkan War.

   Secondly, you mentioned Serbia trying to force its monarchy over regions in the 19th Cantury. Do sincerely beleive that Serbia could have forced any ethnic majority to become part of ‘Greater Serbia’ in the 19th Century when it was still a nascent state, squeezed in between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire? With these two empires, not to mention the British, Prussian and Russain Empires, having the last say (as they still do) in the drawing-up of the map of the Balkans.

7. jack
   Comment by jack | 2010/09/03 at 15:10:19

   Tony,

   Read the Forgotten 500 by Gregory Freeman, and you’ll see the true nature of the Serbs. The Croatians welcomed the Nazis — it should speak volumes.

   Instead of calling Anna a pro-serb propagandist, ask yourself why you seemingly are vehemently anti-Serb.

   Jack

8. Sam
   Comment by Sam | 2010/09/10 at 05:41:20

   Tony
   Thanks for sharing your pro Nazi propoganda with us.
   Peace in the Balkans is obviously a long way off as there are many people like you who still cling to Croatia’s glorious Nazi past by supporting and condoning the genocide that was committed on its territory!
   Shame on you and the bitter little people like you who still exist and continue to attack and harass ethnic minorities.
   Hope fully one day Croatia will evolve into a semi civilized state.

9. Milena
   Comment by Milena | 2010/09/10 at 16:24:47

   Good point Anna. Thanks for this perspective.
   Its enough just to look situation nowadays – Croats can freely come to Belgrade, but can Serbs really freely without fear of some incident come to Zagreb. Numerous cases say they cant. Even on football games they still want to “hang us on willow”. That atmosphere speak for it self – who was and is aggressor here, in this relationship.

10. Alexandra Shepeleva
    Comment by Alexandra Shepeleva | 2010/10/18 at 07:18:45

    I appreciate Anna’s commentary, as well as Michael’s, Jack, Sam’s & Milena’s in clarifying the situation in the Balkans. And let us not forget Bosnia too, they too have genocided the Serbs…but of course the article was about Serbia-Croatia so we won’t even go there for now…as for Tony and Stjepan, I am sorry to say so, with all do respect I disagree with both of them and specially Styepan, he did not write a comment or reply but an essay! Its obvious the situation its all about politics, power, wealth..We do not get many movies about the Serbs being genocided, or showing them in concentrations camps, we do not see too many programs in Public Television about them..but if we take the time to investigate, listen to them, we will find the truth…Tony mentions that Serbia wanted to “impose” over the other Balkan Nations, yet today we have even Turkey interested in Kosovo, as well as the Albanians, when both of them have their own country, why they want to take over the “holy city” of the Serbs? To be a majority (by having more children & by eliminating your enemies) should not give the right to people to take over another Country! Like I said to someone, then the Cubans can claim Florida for them and so on! If you visit Croatia, Bosnia, you will see how entire Serbian towns have been destroyed, Churches, those who have relatives who came from those town have no place to visit, no graves to pray..I know other nations have suffered too, but right now the subject is the Serbs..

11. John
    Comment by John | 2010/10/18 at 12:15:00

    I am a history professor specializing in South Eastern Europe and I have seen this debate many times. It is true that there were problems in the Balkans since long before WW2. It is also true that pre and during-WW2 some fractions in Croatia were aligned with Germany. But so were fractions in Serbia, both with Germany and Italy. It is also true that the anti-Nazi movement started in Croatia and then spread to the rest of the Southern Slavs. Whoever really wants to talk/comment about it should read the history before spreading uneducated “soundbites.”

    For the comment about who was the aggressor in 1991 there is no question, Belgrade/Serbia controlled the Yugo army and attacked Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. However contrary to popular propaganda, this had nothing to do with hatred or religion but economics, as Slovenia and Croatia were the cash cows of Yugoslavia which the central government in Belgrade didn’t want to loose.

    Independence for the individual republics was part of the Yugo constitution, and even though Slovenia and Croatia proposed a a looser confederation to Belgrade, the answer was military force.

    Hope this illuminates some of the murkiness about the Balkans.

12. Mark
    Comment by Mark | 2010/10/19 at 04:29:15

    Michael, Jack, Sam and Milena,

    Tony was spot on – the problems between Croats and Serbs pre-date WWII, indeed it goes back centuries. How stating this makes him pro-Nazi is beyond me, unless the comment was an exercise in character assasination and playing the man rather than the ball.

    The problems between Croats and Serbs can be attributed to:
    * the Austrian and Hungarian dual monarchs playing Serbs and Croats off each other as part of the divide and rule strategy.

    * the newly created Serbian kingdom from then Ottoman empire lands seeking to expand territory at the expense of her neighbours leading to wars with Turkey, Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary (croats/habsburg loyal Serbs v Greater Serbia Serbs in some of these conflicts).

    * the Serbian dictatorship in the first Yugoslavia where non-Serbs, particularly the Croats (and those Serbs loyal to Austria-Hungary) were brutalised.

    * the assasination, commissioned by the Serbian King, of the Croat political leadership (Radic brothers) in the Yugoslav parliament. This assasination prompted then lawyer and MP, Ante Pavelic, to form the insurgent group the Ustashi, who along with Macedonian insurgent groups assasinated the same king in Marseilles in 1934 (talk about Karma).

    The specific source of tension was the tendency of a large groups of Croatian Serbs choosing not to be loyal to the Croatian community that gave them refuge and that they were a part of, but rather to be loyal to the cause of a foreign power (treason), that is expanding Serbia’s borders at the expense of Croatia and the brutality that involves for non-Serbs.

    What Michael, Jack, Sam and Milena don’t mention is that:
    * much like NATO in 1995 and 1999, the Ustashi adopted the language of violence because that was the only thing the Serb elites understood. But unlike NATO which conformed to the rules of war, the Ustashi displayed no such dicipline.

    * the scale of WWII atrocities can be attributed to two main groups during the war (Chetniks – Serb; Ustashi- Croat) and a third at the end of the war (Partisans – multiethnic). This created its own feedback loop with a cycle of revenge.

    It is pointless in trying to establish who started the cycle because how far back in history do you go, and in light of the fact that the Chetniks had their own genocidal plan (cf Moljevic plan and Draza Mihailovic’s ethnic cleansing orders – Prosecutor v Tadic ICTY) which was implemented.

    * Serbia had its own pro-Nazi (Nedic) regime, its own SS and Gestapo. Yet you will not hear NATO using this as an excuse for bombing Serbia in 1999.

    * that Serbia was the only state in the Balkans and Belgrade the first city declared juden-frei. For all the Ustashi’s faults, no Croat or Bosnian cities were ever declared juden-frei.

    And Jack,
    For the true character of the Serbs (and by that I mean the state, its institutions and its elites), one only has to look:
    * the ICJ case Bosnia v Serbia – first state to be in breach of the genocide convention;

    * the failure of Serbia to extradite Mladic to the Hague (so as to avoid the risk of civil liability in the ICJ – Mladic was the link proving Serbian state involvement in the Srebrenica genocide and thus is a crucial witness).

    * the ICTY cases – Prosecutor v Babic, Prosecutor v Tadic, Prosecutor v Milosevic – the evidence adduced of the joint criminal enterprises.

    * There are the ICTY cases concerning the bombing of Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, and despite the de-bunking of the claims that the victims bombed themselves, or that heritage sites were used as staging posts for attacks (indeed, in Prosecutor v Strugar, the judgement effectively found the claims of the defence to be mendacious!). Yet these myths still abound in Serbia and among her sympathisers around the world.

    * extent of genocide denial in Serbia -> the resolution by the Serbian parliament about Srebrenica, could not bring itself to use the word genocide.

    * rehabilitation of war criminals -> the veneration of WWII chetniks, responsible for genocidal policies carried out against non-Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Sandjak.

    This culture of denial has its roots in a teflon approach to responsibility by projecting responsibility on every “other” – be they Slovene, Croat, Bosnjiak, Kosovar, Albanian, Montenegran, Germany, Vatican, America, Saudi Arabia, NATO, Clinton, Blair, Chirac…..and has implications not only for historical and criminal accountability, but in administrative capacity of the Serbian state in having functional institutions.

    If I may, I’ll quote Serb-American opinion writer George Mitrovich, who captured the essence of the issue that the likes of Michael, Jack, Sam and Milena either cannot or do not want to comprehend:

    “Those who count the sins of their ancient enemies to build a justification for acts of evil today are worthy neither of our pity nor our understanding, only of our contempt.”

13. Anna Pullinger
    Comment by Anna Pullinger | 2010/10/21 at 01:01:32

    John,

    If you are a history professor, you are a very poor one, but it’s not surprising because so many are. There is little to no interest in the truth of historical events in the Balkans. Certainly it is not taught honestly in American schools, if it was taught at all prior to the recent conflict in which the U.S. put its full weight on one side, and as some military men have bravely stated, the wrong side. I do feel bad about the miseducation of our children and young students when a “history professor” can come out with such drivel. Go back to school, John.

14. Jorge
    Comment by Jorge | 2010/10/22 at 12:08:05

    Mark you manipulate facts in awful way!
    This is official information I managed to find.

    *out of 580 000 Serbs in 1991 Croatia, today there is 198 000 due to ethnic cleansing operation ”Storm” in which 450 000 + Serbs left
    45-50 000 Serbian civilians died compared to 25 000 Croatian military loses in civil war in total in Crotia

    *less then 100 000 Serbs returned to Croatia in last 15 yrs since war ended

    *in united country, that Yugoslavia was there is no such thing as aggression of one country or nation toward other-it was civil war that started in 1991 not war between independent countries; official nations in Yugoslavia were Slovenes , Croats, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrin and muslims by nationality(people that today call them self Bosniacs) and also Yugoslavs (all people from mixed marriages) and ethnic majorities (over 30).That is official information from constitution and national censuses every 10 years since 1951-1991 in 6 republics-federation parts of SFR Yugoslavia.

    *The culture of denial of crimes is not over Serbs- against others crimes that happened in civil war -we all know how ”animal” and ”barbarian” Serbs are, but contrary , over crimes committed over Serbs and this article is about it, and I didn’t manage to find any part of original article that is justifying any crimes and killing of any side, it is just giving some new information over historical conflict in WW2, that’s rarely mentioned due to propaganda you are successful victim of, Mark.

    About WW2:

    *Chetnick Serbs were official ally in WW2-Ustashe Croats in then formed Independent state of Croatia were allies of Nazi Germany and Italy. You can’t compare, specially not killings-on one side you have nazi soldiers that were killed on other you have 1.3 million of Serbs and 200 000 others killed by Nazi army and Ustashe Croats-official data.

    *Belgrade had 350.000 population before WW2, 5-7% being Jewish,Jews were quickly killed or deported to camps due to their number, but not by puppet government of Serbia that was established 2 years after Belgrade was pronounced judden frei, but by Nazi military commandment that first bombed city destroying every second building in it and then occupying it in April of 1941. Belgrade population in 1945 after the war was under 150 000-that explains a lot, all Jews were killed but what you fail to even mention Mark is the fact that half of city population was killed including those 25 000 Jews. By whom Mark?

    Regards from Netherlands

15. Mark
    Comment by Mark | 2010/11/03 at 00:54:26

    “Comment by Jorge | 2010/10/22 at 12:08:05
    *out of 580 000 Serbs in 1991 Croatia, today there is 198 000 due to ethnic cleansing operation ”Storm” in which 450 000 + Serbs left”

    Re: Operation Storm Objectives
    ———————————
    The allegation that Operation Storm was an ethnic cleansing operation is being tested in Prosecutor v Gotovina et al, where the a judgement is being awaited upon.

    From the trial transcripts and out of court literature (e.g. Who Saved Bosnia by Martin Raguz) one can discern that Operation Storm was a legitimate military operation to:
    - prevent a repetition of genocide commited by Serbs in Srebrenica UN safe Haven from being repeated in the Bihac UN safe haven.
    - restore Croatia’s legal control over territories occupied by rebel Serbs and paramilitaries from Serbia.
    - save Bosnia and Herzegovina from being absorbed into Greater Serbia.

    Re: Source of Refugee Flows in Operation Storm aftermath
    ———————————————————–
    The refugee flow in the aftermath of operation stems partly from:
    - evacuation order by Krajina leader Milan Martic who chose to withdraw civilians into Bosnia and Serbia rather than encirclement and reintegration into a multi-ethnic Croatia.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martic-order1995.jpg
    http://icr.icty.org -> search for “Public redacted version of Gotovina defence final trial brief (English, 315 Pages)” case number IT-06-90-T 36456 page 14 of 140;

    - Martic & Mrksic said they ordered the population out because they were stung by the criticism for the failure to evacuate the Serb population before the fall of Western Slavonia. Ibid 36436 p34 of 140.

    - UN organised voluntary departures and got departing Serbs to attest to that by signing documents. Ibid 36436 p34 of 140.

    - Prior to operation Storm, Serbian intelligence Krajina Serbs preferred to be resettled rather than stay in Krajina under Croatian rule, with Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church appearing in Knin six days before operation storm and “rejected all possibillities for co-existance between Croats and Serbs”. Ibid 36367 p103 of 140.

    - Milosevic’s desire to resettle the Croatian Serbs in Kosovo to strengthen Serb demographics there:
    http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,CHRON,SRB,,469f38f51e,0.html – this source documents forced resettlement of Krajina Serbs to Kosovo.

    - the Greater Serbia mindset of part the population where it was inconceivable to them that they could live in an independent Croatia (cf Ivo Goldstein conclusion in his ‘History of Croatia’)

    Re: Official Statistics on Refugee Flows
    —————————————
    I checked the UNHCR website and the official statistics are:
    Refugees orginating from Croatia currently number 76,478: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e48d7d6

    I checked the UNHCR report to see what the stats were in 1995 (I have rounded to the nearest thousand):
    http://www.unhcr.org/4641be5611.html – refugee and asylum seekers TO Croatia: 165,000 refugees (mostly from Bosnia) + 145,000 internally displaced persons (mostly Croats). Another report puts IDPs (mostly Croat) at 250,000 http://www.unhcr.org/42f38b084.html.

    Refugees and asylum seekers FROM Croatia in 1995 numbered 310,000, with 297,000 seeking asylum in Serbia. However the UNHCR state that these are estimates only. The data is not stratified to show how many of these asylum seekers are from third countries whose last port of call was Croatia.

    The peak of the refugee crisis was in 1992 when there with 800,000 refugees seeking refuge in Croatia (mainly Croat or Bosnian), including 15,000 survivors from Vukovar – http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/utjecaj-srbijanske-agresije-na-stanovnistvo-hrvatske-/175515.aspx p8/24.
    ============================================================

    “Comment by Jorge | 2010/10/22 at 12:08:05
    45-50 000 Serbian civilians died compared to 25 000 Croatian military loses in civil war in total in Crotia”

    Re: War dead in Croatian War of Independence
    ———————————————–
    Where do you get the figure of 45-50,000 Serb civilians and 25,000 Croat military deaths? I am unable to source such a figure nor corroborate it.

    - Serb group Veritas lists 6,780 mainly Serbs killed and missing including 4,324 combatants and 2,344 civilians – http://www.war-memorial.net/Killed-and-missing-persons-from-the-territories-of-Republic-Croatia-and-former-Republic-of-Serb-Krayina-1.164. And these figures are considered exaggerated.

    - A Croat thinktank Ivo Pilar institute estimated just under 16,000 dead or missing – 8147 soldiers and 6605 civilians (http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/utjecaj-srbijanske-agresije-na-stanovnistvo-hrvatske-/175515.aspx).

    - the statement of claim by Croatia in the Croatia v Serbia genocide suit states 20,000 dead and 55,000 wounded (http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/118/7125.pdf p8/24)

    ==========================================================

    “Comment by Jorge | 2010/10/22 at 12:08:05
    *in united country, that Yugoslavia was there is no such thing as aggression of one country or nation toward other-it was civil war that started in 1991 not war between independent countries; official nations in Yugoslavia were Slovenes , Croats, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrin and muslims by nationality(people that today call them self Bosniacs) and also Yugoslavs (all people from mixed marriages) and ethnic majorities (over 30).That is official information from constitution and national censuses every 10 years since 1951-1991 in 6 republics-federation parts of SFR Yugoslavia.”

    Re: International Charcater of Conflict
    —————————————
    * international character of the Yugoslav wars was confirmed in the ICTY trial
    * partly relied on precedent from Nuremburg trials
    * see Prosecutor v Tadic paragraph 17 (http://www.icty.org/x/cases/tadic/acdec/en/51002723.htm)

    “17. I am of the opinion that the submission of the Prosecution to view the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in its entirety and to consider it international in character is correct.

    The armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia started shortly after the date on which Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence on 25 June 1991 between the military forces of the SFRY and Slovenia and Croatia. Such armed conflict should of course be characterized as internal because the declarations of independence were suspended in consequence of the proposal of the EC for three months. After the expiration of the three months’ period, on 7 October 1991, Slovenia proclaimed its independence with effect from that date, and Croatia with effect from 8 October 1991. So the armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia should be considered international as from 8 October 1991 because the independence of these two States was definite on that date.

    But there were some internal armed conflicts in the whole course of the conflict, for instance, Bosnians against Bosnians, and the question is how to treat such internal conflicts. This question is correctly answered by O’Brien as follows:

    “Most importantly, the conflict is clearly international: three nations have fought, primarily in the territory of two of them (thus far), with a number of fronts and partisans or proxy groups participating on behalf of each. Once this determination is made, it should not matter that some combatants are citizens of the same nation-State. It is virtually unthinkable that, for example, a Ukrainian fighting for the German Army in World War II would have succeeded in arguing that his fight was internal (against the Soviet State), regardless of the character of the broader conflict.” (O’Brien, The International Tribunal for Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia, 87 AJIL 639, 647-648 (1993).)

    18. Of the three nations mentioned by O’Brien in the passage quoted above, one is surely SFRY, afterwards FRY, and the other two are of course Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Indeed, there is sufficient evidence of probative value for proving that SFRY, afterwards FRY, participated, and FRY is still participating in the armed conflict against Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

16. Zemljak
    Comment by Zemljak | 2010/11/09 at 07:26:16

    John,

    I am impressed by your post, as it has pure facts and nothing else. Concise and clear. I am a Croat from the Balkans area (who used to declare himself as Yugoslavian) and I was there before and during most of the war. I saw Milosevic get to power and I actually attended one of his mass gatherings 1988 in Belgrade to see what was going on. I got very concerned because all they talked about was Serbia. The Serbs went mad about him, while everyone else got quite scared. I saw his obvious and transparent efforts to seize the majority in the presidency of Yugoslavia by forcefully instating his puppets to rule Vojvodina, Kosovo, and Montenegro, when other states gradually became defensive and wanted a more loose confederation. His response was: “Yugoslavia will be a federation, or it will not exist!” Thereby lays the reason why the country later ceased to exist and it’s good he rotted in jail in the Haag. It was his decision and not the “nazi” Croatians or secessionistic Slovenians. Once the free elections were held in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, things got more complicated because Slovenia and Croatia elected moderate right wing or center parties, while the Serbs elected the communists. I believe this was the crucial moment that later enabled a chain reaction and bloodshed, because as a result the Yugoslav National Army, a hard core communist body, supported Milosevic and the Serbs, regardless how pro or anti-communist or nazi they were. They removed the Teritorial Defence arms from Croatia and armed all the ethnic Serbs, in a belief they will be able to keep their domination over the entire Yugoslavia and have the Serbs help them “unify” the country that was falling apart. However, they lacked the decisiveness as most of them were taught to love and respect all ex Yugoslavian nations, and that’s when Serbian radicals and extremists come in, take over and continue the fight, well armed and ready to slaughter anybody on their way. Nobody could stop them until Croats and Bosnians got some weapons and help from the West (Bill Clinton, we will always love you).

17. Emile T
    Comment by Emile T | 2010/11/19 at 17:45:07

    Wow Anna Pullinger,

    I am almost speechless at the ridiculous and infantile nature of your response to John. Almost, but unfortunately for you, not quite. What John did was to offer a sensible and non-offensive post, backed up by actual knowledge. Please take a minute before you continue reading to compare this to your ghastly rant. The hilarious thing is that while you ask John to go back to school, you illustrate quite clearly that you are in desperate need for further education yourself.

    First of all, you say that because Croatia was a Nazi Collaborator in WW2 they are all Nazis. Let me ask you this-are you actually a child? So by that measure, what are the Germans? All Nazis I suppose right? Well, I assume from your second post that you are American-should I then assume that due to the actions of the USA government during the Bush years, you are all warmonguering rednecks whos favourite past time is to invade other countries for oil bloodmoney and kill innocent civilians? No, because that would be childish, irresponsible and unacceptably simplistic. Such absolutist views as the ones you (and others who make an equivalent between the actions of a government and its populace) are spouting belong in a play ground, not in serious adult debate.

    As for the actual topic I would have this to say. Truly, Croatia has done attrocious things which it must repent for. However, make no mistake-so has Serbia. You cannot pin all the blame on Croatia and suddenly, Serbia is the victim here. As someone who has grown up in the Balkans (but not Croatian) I can tell you that if you spend some time doing serious reseach into Balkan history from before the middle ages to now, you will see that Serbia has had an agressive and expansionist attitude to its neighbours from its inception. This is again not the sin of the Serbian everyman, but of their ruling elites. “Serbs” are not agressive and expansionst-but their rulers have been and this has consequences, not the least of which is bad blood with your neighbours. The issues in the Balkans have been going on for far longer than the west has cared to look in our direction and to be frank, far longer than a lot of your countries have even existed. As a reality check, some of the Balkan countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia predate a lot of western nations as they are now. Escpecially in the case of the USA, you have to realise that for example Serbia and Bulgaria predate you by 1000 years or more. The world didnt stand still while you were not around Anna, issued build up which you cannot so easily understand from your perspective.

    Please: Check your facts, don’t generalise and please do not assume that you can suddenly understand all the problems of the Balkans from afar or pass judgement so decisevly. You are much too young.

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