A day before the 23rd anniversary of Operation Storm, a joint Croatian military and police operation that took place in August 1995, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic paid his respects to the Serb victims, saying the Operation Storm was motivated by hatred towards Serbs and that strong Serbia would never again allow another Storm.

Vucic said that Serbia today was strong and it would never allow another Storm against the Serb population anywhere, only because they were Serbs.

Serbia on Saturday marked Remembrance Day commemorating the persecution of Serbs during the Croatian military and police Operation Storm by which Croatia regained its occupied territory and which the authorities in Belgrade describe as “a premeditated crime.”

Different perceptions of the military operation have been a divisive factor in relations between the two countries since the mid-1990s. While Zagreb sees Storm as a military triumph, which liberated its territory from aggression, Belgrade views it as ethnic cleansing of Serbs.

A religious ceremony was held by Patriarch Irinej and the central commemoration, held on Saturday evening in Backa Palanka, was attended by the Serbian state leadership.

Addressing the event, Vucic said: “Hitler wanted a world free of Jews and Croatia wanted a country free of Serbs.”

Vucic also said Serbia would protect its people and reiterated there would be no new Storms.
The event was also attended by the president of the Bosnian Serb entity, Milorad Dodik, and Patriarch Irinej, who said that Serbs were persecuted because they were Serbs but he called for forgiveness.