Comments on: Croatia: Anniversary of Operation Storm

By: Sumar N.

Sumar N. — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 01:05:03 +0000

It’s amazing, this is the largest offensive since WWII and largest case of ethnic cleansing in the Yugoslav wars, yet it receives no attention in the media.

That war was full of lies, hopefully the truth will be known soon.

By: tvorevina

tvorevina — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:40:50 +0000

A relevant scientific study on the subject was recently published in Croatia and I encourage the author of the article to consult it. The book was written by the sociologist Ozren Žunec and is called “Goli život – Socijetalne dimenzije pobune Srba u Hrvatskoj” (Bare Life – societal aspects of the Serb rebellion in Croatia). It’s a two volume book that is praised by the more independent intellectuals (the book received extremely little attention in mainstream Croatian media). (I don’t want to adverstise booksellers but you can find out more by using the standard totaliarian search engine:)

By: Sinisa Boljanovic

Sinisa Boljanovic — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:54:44 +0000

Miguel, I do not intend to discuss the latest history of the Balkans because in history, there should be a time distance to explain some events and developments with the assistance of numerous facts. You persistently insist on the case of such a brutal military operation as The Storm was, and I was persistently refusing up to this moment to get into the historical context just because of the reasons mentioned above. However, for the sake of our readers and with this I would finish my exposition on this topic, I would mention just one detail that happened most probably before January 1991, even though that date is taken as the official when talking about Martin Spegelj, close Franjo Tudjman’s associate, and the famous film recorded by counter-intelligence service of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA). The people of Yugoslavia saw that film and we were all appalled at the substance. Therefore, even in 1991, and I would emphasize this – before a single bullet was shot in Yugoslavia and before all war crimes committed later could be envisaged, the Socialist Republic of Croatia of that time, as one of the 6 republics of SFRY, was secretly importing weapons from Hungary, preparing for the war and ordinary citizens were not acquainted with that. Martin Spegelj, along with his associates, was the one who was preparing the war that took away thousands of lives. There is no reason that is more concrete for everything else that happened afterwards in the area of ex-Yugoslavia, except if you want to go deeper in the history, all the way to Jasenovac, for example, that you yourself wrote about and then search for why the reasons were created. However, as I already stated, this discussion is finished for me because I’m not a historian and I still do not have enough data and facts about civil war. I do not intend to use superficial information, and I was never a victim of propaganda that was lead along with that bloody war. I’ve always tried to be objective and did not want to hide horrifying crimes that were committed in the area of one of the most beautiful countries in the world – the ex-Yugoslavia (SFRY). This is why I wrote about the atrocities in Srebrenica and did not go into its pre-history, I also mentioned the atrocities in Bratunac but was not discussing the historical context, and of course, the atrocities committed during the military operation Storm belong in this group of the worst and I had no intention to remain silent on that, nor I had the intention to search for its causes. The fact is that the innocent people had suffered and that’s what hurts me the most, and all other stuff I would pass to the historians.

You could read more about the mentioned film here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0pegelj_Tapes

By: Mike Baresic

Mike Baresic — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:28:19 +0000

For a more honest assessment of Operation Storm than the one provided here, see the analysis on the Bosnian Institute website, “The aim of Operation Oluja (Storm) was not to drive out the Serbs,” http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2459

By: Miquel Hudin Balsa

Miquel Hudin Balsa — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:30:55 +0000

Really, my only big issue with it is pulling the event out of context. You can’t take a sentence like, “He believes that people who say children are idiots are misguided.” and quote it as, “He believes children are idiots.”
Again, while Operation Storm was a brutal operation by the Croatians, you can’t discuss it without historical context in which it happened, giving the story of what happened to the Serbs in Krajina and then allowing the reader to make their own opinions.

By: Sinisa Boljanovic

Sinisa Boljanovic — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:31:25 +0000

Dear Miquel,
I am so sorry because this post has been aroused your anger and bad feelings. Unfortunately, I think that almost every war stirs up terrible things such as mass killing, ethnic cleansing, destruction of properties and many others kinds of violence.
I also think that there may not be any reason for killing of people, carrying out of war crimes, ethnic cleansing etc.
I am not a historian and I don’t want to find any (historical) reasons for starting of war or some war operations, nor I would like to be a judge. For that there are relevant institutions.
I was (am and will be) interested civilian victims and their families.
I just want to remind readers of some events and terrible things which were done during the civil war on the space of former Yugoslavia in order they would not be repeated anymore.
I also make an effort to be unbiased.
Believe me, I spent several hours on August 4 using Google search option to find out some reactions by Croatian bloggers to 13. anniversary of operation Storm. Unfortunately, I had no success. I was not guilty because of that.

By: Miquel Hudin Balsa

Miquel Hudin Balsa — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:21:05 +0000

Siniša, I have to say that I’m extremely bothered by this article. I find it unbalanced in that it does not cite the Croatian side of the argument despite being an event that occurred in Croatia.
That initial point aside, it is also dishonest. The event that you’re talking about is one four day campaign in a war that lasted for five years. You don’t mention the initial reason for the Operation Storm offensive, which was the fact that Serbian forces forcibly took over the Krajina region in 1991, ran it, and expanded it in to Croatian majority regions, until 1995. These Serbian forces were just as guilty of ethnic cleansing as the forces of Operation Storm.
I completely agree that the Croatian forces were overly brutal in their campaign to retake the region, which is why such commanders as Gotovina are standing trial in the Hague. Croatia has also been extremely poor in returning property to Serbs who were forcibly expelled from the region. This is rightfully getting in their way to EU membership. But at the same time, this was not part of a plan for a Greater Croatia. As per the Badinter Agreement of 1992, the boundaries of Croatia were defined as they were when it was a state in Yugoslavia. Yes, the Croats had Greater Croatia goals when it came to Bosnia Herzegovina, but so did the Serbs and not including this information accurately makes this article extremely one-sided and smacking of nationalist propaganda.
You know as well as I do that the history of the region is extremely complex. Picking and choosing which bits of history to include when writing an article is disingenuous and quite frankly (and I apologize for being so blunt) no better than what Tuđman and Milošević did to start this unfortunate chapter of history in the Balkans, which I see for some continues to this day…

Miquel