Memorial service on 19th anniversary of Operation Flash

BELGRADE - A memorial service held at the Church of St. Mark in Belgrade on Thursday marked 19 years since the Croatian military Operation Flash, launched against ethnic Serbs in western Slavonia on May 1 and 2, 1995, which resulted in the death of 283 Serbs, including 57 women and nine children.

The victims' families and members of the association of the families of killed and missing “Tear” (“Suza”) laid wreaths at the memorial plaque in the Belgrade Tasmajdan Park.

Savo Strbac, Director of Veritas Documentation and Information Center, told reporters that the state must make sure that the truth is revealed, noting that one of the ways to accomplish this was the genocide countersuit against Croatia, which achieved its goal regardless of the ruling by making wartime evidence public.

Strbac said that for years he has been asking the question of who decides which victims are worth more than others.

It turns out that Serb victims are not worthy, in Croatia, in Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as in Kosovo, and the proof of this are the rulings of The Hague tribunal, usually acquittals and offensive to the victims, he said.

In the operation that lasted less than 36 hours, on May 1 and 2, 1995, at least 15,000 Serbs were expelled from western Slavonia, at the time part of Republic of Serb Krajina and under protection of the United Nations.

Previously, several military operations conduced by the end of 1991 resulted in the exodus of 67,000 Serbs from western Slavonia.

According to Human Rights Watch, 1,500 Serbs were arrested after Operation Flash, and many were taken to camps in Varazdin, Slavonska Pozega, Nova Gradiska and Bjelovar.

Veritas Documentation and Information Center...