This August 5th marks the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm, a military operation which ended the war in Croatia. In Croatia it is seen as a monumental victory yet in Serbia it’s a day of mourning.
This year the rhetoric around it is particularly heated, so here’s a 🧵.
This year the rhetoric around it is particularly heated, so here’s a 🧵.
On Tuesday evening, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke at an event on the Serbian-Bosnian border. He said “we will never be weak again,” referring to the many Croat Serbs killed and hundreds of thousands expelled from Croatia during the operation.
He spoke in front of an installation of actors on tractors, holding Serbian Orthodox icons, and bags with clothes — meant to reconstruct the convoys of Croatian Serbs leaving the country in droves. rs.n1info.com/Vesti/a626567/…
Zoran Milanovic, Croatia’s President who otherwise purports to be a moderate and an alternative to the hardline nationalists in the country, made a series of incendiary sentiments in the run up to the anniversary.
First he said that “not all of those charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia are war criminals.” This statement is considered inherently wrong, since the court had an exclusive mandate to prosecute war crimes. rs.n1info.com/Region/a626395…
Milanovic also said that “joint criminal ventures” were “one of the dumbest and craziest inventions.” JCV is a specific feature of war crimes tribunals that prosecutes collective liability. In short, he said that a country can’t be charged for war crimes. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_cri…
Deputy PM Boris Milosevic — who happens to be part of the Croatian Serb party — decided to attend this year’s manifestation. Milosevic said he wanted to attend hoping that the gesture “would make things easier for his community in Croatia.” rs.n1info.com/Region/a625058…
Milosevic’s decision marks the first time a Croatian Serb politician attends the official “celebration” in Knin. The Croatian Serb party, the Independent Democratic Serb Party, is one of the most moderate minority parties in the entire former Yugoslavia.
Why should this be controversial? Well, if a Croatian Serb member decides to attend a “celebration” of Serb suffering, he’s consciously participating in an event that marks the suffering of his ethnic group in order to foster understanding and tolerance in his country.
Many compared his decision to the move by Willy Brandt who decided to accept the collective responsibility of Germany for the Holocaust. Not that Milosevic is accepting responsibility, but he’s saying “I will overcome the boundaries of my ethnicity for the benefit of humanity.”
In conclusion? This anniv is typical for European debates about victims versus perpetrators. Mainstream politicians decide to incite intolerance, whereas average citizens are swept into the hateful rhetoric and instrumentalized for petty political fights.
