30th anniversary of Operation Storm

Operation Storm began in the early morning of August 4, 1995 with an offensive by the Croatian army, police, and Croatian Defense Council (HVO) units targeting the Banija, Kordun, Lika, and northern Dalmatia regions, which were part of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Srpska Krajina (RSK).

Through Operation Storm, involving 138,500 Croatian military and police personnel and HVO units, Croatia regained control over the last territories held by the Army of the Republic of Srpska Krajina.

Croatian authorities, led by then-President Franjo Tudjman, declared the operation complete on the evening of August 7, though sporadic clashes continued until August 14.

Operation Storm is widely regarded as one of the most brutal instances of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. The International Court of Justice in The Hague classified it as such in its February 2015 ruling.

According to Serbia’s Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, over 250,000 Serbs were displaced during and after the operation, around 1,700 were killed, and more than 700 remain missing.

The Veritas Documentation and Information Center, a non-governmental, non-partisan organization founded in late 1993 by citizens of the Republic of Srpska Krajina, reports that 1,284 Serbs were killed, with 619 still listed as missing. Of those killed, 1,247 were civilians, three-quarters of whom were over 60 years old, and 564 were women.

Croatian NGOs and associations estimate that over 600 civilians were killed during and after Operation Storm, more than 22,000 homes were burned, and approximately 150,000 Croatian citizens of Serbian descent fled the country, with their return systematically obstructed for years.

For crimes against civilians during Operation Storm, three Croatian generals faced trial at the Hague Tribunal. In the initial verdict, Ante Gotovina was sentenced to 24 years and Mladen Markac to 18 years for participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at permanently removing Serbs from Croatia, while Ivan Cermak was acquitted. The appeals chamber overturned the initial ruling, ultimately acquitting Gotovina and Markac.

In Serbia, August 4, the day the operation began, is observed as a Day of Remembrance for the killed and displaced Serbs. Croatia, on the other hand, celebrates August 5 as Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Defenders Day, marking the moment its forces entered an almost deserted Knin and raised the Croatian flag over the Knin Fortress.

On Sunday evening, a state ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of Operation Storm, titled “Storm is a Pogrom – We Remember Forever,” was held in the Serbian town of Sremski Karlovci. The event was jointly organized by Serbia, and Bosnia’s Serb-majority entity Republika Srpska.

Among those present were Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), former Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut, Serbian Parliament speaker Ana Brnabic, numerous ministers and parliamentarians from Serbia and Republika Srpska, as well as representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

At the event, Vucic declared that the majority of Serbs “refuse to abandon their Serb names and surnames—whether from Krajina, Montenegro, or Republika Srpska.” He addressed those who invoke “Storm” in Serbia or Republika Srpska, saying, “I’ve told them countless times, and they thought I was joking—please don’t try it. No ‘Storm’ will ever succeed again. Never again will we allow you to threaten the freedom of a Serb in any way.”

Dodik, who was sentenced last week by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to one year in prison and a six-year ban from holding office, said that Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina need “some form of political offensive” to defend themselves.

“They have dismantled the Dayton Agreement. All that remains of the Dayton Agreement, which we tirelessly defend, are ruins. We must launch a political offensive because we cannot defend ourselves otherwise. The same forces that drove Serbs from Krajina are now targeting Republika Srpska—those from Brussels, until recently from America, though I can’t say the current America, and, of course, the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Dodik said.

The Serb National Council in Croatia held a commemoration on Sunday in the village of Donji Zirovac for those killed and displaced during Operation Storm, attended by representatives of two Serbian opposition parties, the Green-Left Front and the Movement of Free Citizens.

Milorad Pupovac, the leader of the Serb community in Croatia, noted at the event that the process of establishing responsibility for crimes committed during Operation Storm has never begun and that the suffering of Serbs “remains outside institutional memory and without initiated investigations.”

Croatia will mark the 30th anniversary of Operation Storm, Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, and Croatian Defenders Day on Tuesday with numerous events across the country. The central celebration will again this year take place in Knin, with a full-day program.

The main event, attended by state officials, will be held at the Dinara soccer club stadium, while the traditional flag-raising ceremony will take place at the Knin Fortress. The stadium event will conclude with a display of the capabilities of the Croatian army and police, and the day will end with an evening concert organized by the City of Knin.

Serbia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Sunday evening that Croatia’s celebratory and triumphant tone in commemorating Operation Storm does not contribute to reconciliation, mutual trust, or regional stability.

The ministry expressed concern that, even three decades after the operation, “we are witnessing rhetoric of hatred and intolerance, as well as increasingly prevalent discourse that fuels ethnic divisions. Such phenomena, unfortunately, are neither sporadic nor isolated but point to a broader social atmosphere that is not aligned with fundamental European values.”

Buses like at an SNS rally

N1 reporters were unable to approach the commemoration site in Sremski Karlovci before 7 pm Sunday due to the large number of buses heading to the ceremony. An N1 journalist counted over 30 buses with various license plates—Pancevo, Sabac, Kragujevac...

The scene resembled those before every rally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), where people are bused in from across Serbia to attend.