18 years since Croatian operation “Flash”

Wednesday marks 18th anniversary of the beginning of the Croatian military operation “Flash”, in which, by the data of the Documentary-informative center “Veritas”, 283 Serbs from western Slavonia were killed, and at least 15,000 people were expelled.

Among the murdered Serbs were 57 women and 9 children. According to the data of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, between 83 and 100 Serbian civilians were killed, and both NGOs point out that none of the Croats was trialed for the war crimes in the operation “Flash”.

According to the data from “Human Rights Watch”, after the “Flash” 1,500 Serbs were arrested, and many of them were taken to detention camps in Varazdin, Slavonska Pozega, Nova Gradiska and Bjelovar.

Due to the anniversary of the “Flash”, there will be a memorial service in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade, on the May 1, at 11 o’clock. Near the temple, on the commemorative plaque, the Association of the families of the missing “Tear” will lay flowers and wreaths for the Serbian victims.

In Gradiska, in Republic Srpska, where most of the refugees from west Slavonia lives, people will toss flowers from the Bridge of salvation and wreaths in Sava river, and in the church of the Holy Virgin in the city will be memorial service.

More than 160 well known burial sites in west Slavonia are not yet exhumed, and the identification process of the dead is going slowly. The last exhumation was done in December 2012, and identification was done in the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, when remains of 17 Serbs were identified. The bodies dated to be from operation “Flash” and other Croatian operations in the area of west Slavonia from 1991. to 1995. In that period, tens of thousands of Serbs were expelled from west Slavonia.

Operation “Flash” lasted two days, and in that part of Slavonia, which was part of Republic Srpska Krajina (“Sector West” under the protection of UN), has entered more than 16,000 Croatian troops.

Wednesday 1 May 2015

http://inserbia.info/news/2013/04/18-years-since-croatian-operation-flash-on-may-1-2013/