04.08.2021.
Stefanović: Serbia is mourning out loud today
On the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Croatian Operation Storm, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović, PhD, told "SrbijaDanas" that it was unacceptable for Croatia to still celebrate in the 21st century the serious crime and brutal ethnic cleansing, while Serbia is mourning and holding memorials for victims.
"Just as the Jasenovac concentration camp in the Second World War was not a labour camp, but a death camp", Operation Storm "was not a liberation action, but a shameful expulsion of the Serbian people from their centuries-old homes in Croatia. The expulsion of about 250,000 citizens, the bombing of refugees, the killing of the elderly, sick and infirm on their doorsteps, the burning of property, harassment, beatings and intimidation, are crimes that have become an inseparable epilogue to this action. The fate of thousands of Serbs is unknown even today, because a quarter of a century later they are listed as missing", says Minister Stefanović.
He says that no attempt at relativization will change the truth."Nothing will heal the wounded souls of the survivors, nothing will bring back the dead to their loved ones, there has been no justice for the victims of Operation Storm to this day, but I am convinced that history will remember this operation as a disgrace to the international community. However, governments nodding their heads in agreement and keeping silent about the horrors that befell the Serbian people, as the previous governments did, are a thing of the past. Today, Serbia is mourning out loud and does not allow Operation Storm to be forgotten because it is an utter disgrace to modern Europe and all of humanity, and certainly the greatest ethnic cleansing on the European soil after the Second World War. Today, a strong Serbia is building a future, peace and cooperation in our region, but it no longer keeps quiet about crimes. It does not allow victims to be forgotten, nor does it keep quiet about the horrors that the Serbian people suffered," Stefanović said.
