SERBIA-OPERATION STORM Serbia hold memorial service marking 20 years since Operation Storm

Record ID: 145049

  • Title: SERBIA-OPERATION STORM Serbia hold memorial service marking 20 years since Operation Storm
  • Date: 4th August 2015
  • Summary: **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** VUCIC AND DODIK ARRIVING AT MEMORIAL SERVICE/ VUCIC KISSING HAND OF SERBIAN PATRIARCH IRINEJ MEDIA / VUCIC, IRINEJ, DODIK AND GUEST LISTENING TO SERBIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM VUCIC AND DODIK STANDING LISTENING TO BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC NATIONAL ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAC6BZBKQQFCR3R45CSF30JNQ2T
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Serbia commemorated the 20th anniversary of Croatian army's Operation Storm on Tuesday (August 4) on the bridge over river Sava on the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and the President of Bosnian Serb Republic Milorad Dodik, threw two wreaths from a bridge into river Sava in memory of some 200,000 Serbs from Croatia who took refuge in neighbouring Bosnia and Serbia.
    Memorial service was held by Serbian patriarch Irinej for the Croatian military offensive that lasted for four days after 1991-95 war in Croatia ended.
    In August 1995, Croatia's army launched a pre-dawn offensive on the self-proclaimed Krajina republic, a territory bordering Bosnia and Herzegovina held by ethnic Serb rebels since 1991, when they opposed Zagreb's drive for independence from Yugoslavia.
    In less than four days, Croatian army retook the whole territory, effectively ending the war.
    Most of them crossed into Serbia over the bridge at Sremska Raca.
    "When (operation) Storm started , this bridge was the sign for everything - the sign of freedom, sign of Serbia , sign of peace, sign of ease and safe escape from a certain death," said Dodik.
    For Serbia, this operation was a military action in which Serbs were force to flee their homes.
    "I wish that words like hatred, conflict, revenge, should not be words that would mark this day. With Croatia we have peace, we will keep it, wishing the best relations in the future, and hoping that very soon, we will become good friends in the common house, European Union," added Vucic.
    Most of those who fled found refuge in Serbia, while only about 50,000 have returned to their homes in Croatia.
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