Knin

Serbian basketball player was at the center of the incident in Croatia: They told us that we were Chetniks and that they would kill us in front of the children.

Croatian political leaders, wartime generals and war veterans gathered on Friday in the town of Knin to mark the anniversary of the country's victorious military offensive, Operation Storm, which effectively ended the independence war in the country in 1995.

The anniversary of the military-police operation Storm, during which the largest exodus of Serbs since World War II was recorded at the beginning of August 1995, will also be marked as a national holiday in Croatia this year - the Day of Victory and Homeland Gratitude and Veterans' Day, while in Serbia that crime that goes unpunished will be marked with a commemorative rally in Novi Sad.

The man identified in court in The Hague as Witness 56 was a Serb policeman in the Croatian town of Knin between May 1994 and August 5, 1995. That was the date when he left the country, along with around 200,000 other Serbs, as the Croatian Army crushed Serb rebel forces during Operation Storm.

Croatia's political leadership, wartime generals and war veterans gathered on Thursday in the town of Knin to mark the anniversary of the victorious military offensive, Operation Storm, that practically ended the independence war in the country in 1995.

Part of the ceremony took place at the Knin Fortress, while another part was held at the town's football stadium.

Croatian Serb advocacy orgnisations and other human rights organisations on Wednesday started a six-day campaign to commemorate the Serbian civilian victims of the Croatian army's 1995 Operation "Oluja" ("Storm").

The operation terminated an ethnic Serb rebellion but also resulted in some 200,000 Serbs being expelled or fleeing the Knin region in southwest Croatia.

"The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs strongly condemns the scandalous act of a member of the delegation led by the State Secretary in the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia during his visit to the Republic of Croatia and sending messages that insult the Republic of Croatia in the most rude way", Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

The Croatian Supreme Court has upheld a verdict acquitting former policemen Frano Drljo and Bozo Krajina of committing a war crime by killing six elderly Serb civilians in the village of Grubori near Knin during an 'anti-terrorist' sweep conducted after Croatia's victorious Operation Storm defeated rebel Serb forces in August 1995, Croatian media reported on Wednesday.

According to media, Serbian returnee, Dobrivoje Arsi, who lives in Vishkovo, was attacked because of a conflict about parking his car in the parking lot in front of the building where he lives.

Croatian Serb leaders condemned on Thursday two attacks by masked assailants on local Serbs watching a televised football match near the town of Knin.

The Serbs in the villages of Uzdolje and Djevrske were watching a game involving Red Star from the Serbian capital Belgrade when the attackers burst into the bars, media reports said. Five, including a minor, were lightly injured.