Remembrance Day of the Victims and Exiles of the Serbs in the Operation “Oluja” (Storm)
Church of Serbia – 7/8/19
The central state event to commemorate the Remembrance Day of All Victims and Exiles of the Serbs in the Croatian armed operation “Storm” was held on August 4, 2019 in the Krusedol Monastery in Fruska Gora, Syrmium.
The parastasis rite for the repose of souls of the victims was served by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej in the prayerful presence of the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, President of the Republic Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic, Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabic, prime minister of the Republika Srpslka, ministers in both governments, high representatives of the governments and national assemblies of the Republic of Serbia and Republika Srpska, political representatives of the Serbs from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia and Northern Macedonia, representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces, members of associations for promoting traditions of Serbian liberation wars and a huge number of citizens.
President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, addressed the present audience saying that it was the duty of the Serbian people to never forget the victims and the happening of August 4 1995. He announced that the next year the memory of the victims and the exiled in the “Storm” would be held at the Belgrade Republic Square.
A brief documentary about the expulsion of the Serbs was presented to the audience, and then Milica Juric, who had been nine years old at the time of the “Storm”, addressed the refugees on behalf of the refugees. “There is no village, no house, no Krajina. It all disappeared in one night. My grandfather told me he had never dreamed of Serbia, but always of Lika,” Juric said. She then thanked Serbia, in which, she says, her family found freedom.
Serbian Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik said that 24 years had passed since Croatia’s decision to purge Krajina from Serbs. “And we are here for the fifth time to prove that we will not forget the “Storm”, and we should thank Alexander Vucic for letting us talk about it and not forgetting it,” Dodik said.
Mr. Dodik recalled that the last century was a century of Serbian sufferings. “It is a century that will be remembered by those whom we have given freedom and who have repaid to us by killing us, expelling and confiscating our property,” Dodik said.
Memory services held in Belgrad, Donji Lapac, Markovac n. Knin…
At St. Mark’s Church in Belgrade, a memory service was served for the repose of souls of the victims of the “Storm”, organized by the Association of Displaced Persons.
A memorial meeting, a parastasis, was held also at Donji Lapac in Croatia, organized by the Serbian National Council and with participation of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. Parastasis was also served at Markovac near Knin, as well as in other Serbian Orthodox churches in Croatia.
