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Croatian political leadership gathered on Monday in the town of Knin. Photo: The Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia.

Croatia’s political leadership gathered on Monday in the Dalmatian town of Knin to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the military offensive that snuffed out a rebel Serbian statelet and ended Croatia’s 1991-95 war of independence from Yugoslavia.

The official programme began early in the morning in Knin – the former headquarters of the breakaway Serbian statelet – with an army orchestra playing patriotic songs. Candles were lit and respects paid to fallen Croatian soldiers at the monument dedicated to the victory of Operation Storm [Oluja] on Knin’s central square. The events were due to end on Monday night with a concert.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in a speech in Knin called Operation Storm “a crucial venture by which we ensured the survival of the Croatian state and its territorial integrity for future generations.

“We respectfully and proudly recall all the fallen Croatian heroes on the battlefields across Croatia,” Plenkovic added. Efforts would not stop to bring justice to the victims and to clarify war crimes, he continued.

Oluja je bila presudan pothvat kojim smo osigurali opstojnost hrvatske države i njezinu teritorijalnu cjelovitost za buduće naraštaje. S poštovanjem i ponosom prisjećamo se svih palih hrvatskih heroja na bojištima diljem Hrvatske. pic.twitter.com/pqaHAagrsT — Andrej Plenković (@AndrejPlenkovic) August 5, 2019

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic thanked everyone who had “defended the homeland” in the war that began in 1991 and ended in the summer of 1995.

“Then, 24 years ago, a strong message was sent to the whole world, and that message is that we Croats are a proud nation and that we have our undeniable right to decide our own fate,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.

During the lightning-speed military operation, Croatian forces regained almost all the territory controlled since late 1991 by rebel Croatian Serbs, who had been helped by the Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, and Serbian paramilitaries.

As well as committing large-scale crimes against Croats, the rebel Serbian authorities expelled between 200,000 and 250,000 non-Serbs from their unrecognised statelet, the Republic of Serbian Krajina, RSK.

After peace talks failed, Croatian special police and army troops moved in to crush the RSK between August 4 and 7, 1995, retaking all of Croatian territory except for a small sliver in the east of the country that was reintegrated into Croatia a few years later.

Since then, Croatia has marked its Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders with a celebratory event in Knin each August 5.

On that day in 1995, Croatian soldiers and President Franjo Tudjman raised the Croatian flag over the fortress in Knin, the capital of the RSK.

The Croatian offensive resulted in revenge killings and sparked a mass flight by Croatian Serbs to neighbouring Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Croatian Helsinki Committee has said that 677 civilians were killed during and after Operation Storm. However, Croatian courts have convicted only one person for war crimes.

Meanwhile, up to 200,000 Serb civilians left Croatia during and after the operation.

Хвала вам што не заборављате. Данас су Срби, ма где да живе уједињени и знају шта им је чинити. Политика сећања покренула је другачију будућност. Дан сећања на све страдале и прогнане Србе у оружаној акцији “Олуја”. pic.twitter.com/KX6o4qLbam — Александар Вучић (@predsednikrs) August 4, 2019

Serbia held a ceremony on Sunday, near the Krusedol monastery in northern Serbia, to mourn the victims of Operation Storm, where President Aleksandar Vucic insisted that Serbia would continue to speak up about its own victims while also respecting other victims as well.

“We will not be silent, because it will be talked about, both the Serbian victims and our children, and because the tears of our children are not worth less than the tears of all other children,” Vucic said.

The President announced that next year, the 25th anniversary of Storm, Serbia would organise the largest such commemorative gathering at Belgrade’s main Republic Square.

The Serbian National Council, a body representing ethnic Serbs in Croatia, commemorated the victims of the Operation Storm on Sunday in Donji Lapac, a small majority-Serb town in Dalmatia, where speakers called on Croatia to face the past and take responsibility for war crimes committed during and after Operation Storm.

On Sunday evening, tens of thousands of people gathered in the port city of Split for a concert by the controversial Croatian nationalist singer Marko Perkovic Thompson, marking Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders. The concert was held on the invitation of the City of Split and the Split War Veterans.

Perkovic’s concerts regularly draw complaints and local media reported that during Sunday’s event the chant “Za dom spremni” (“Ready for the homeland]”) – a slogan of Croatian World War II fascist Ustasa movement – was heard. At his concert marking the 20th anniversary of Operation Storm in 2015, many in the 80,000-strong audience also chanted “Za dom spremni” and “Kill a Serb”.