Popovic: We remember victims of Croatia's "Operation Flash"

BELGRADE - Serbian government minister Nenad Popovic attended on Thursday a memorial service for the victims of Croatia's 1995 military and police operation "Flash", noting that it was one of the darkest events in the recent history of the Serbs and that it must not be forgotten.

In a statement released by his office, Popovic said the Serbs were commemorating their plight while Croatia continued to glorify ethnic cleansing.

"We must not and will not forget this crime. We will not let the truth be suppressed and criminals celebrated as heroes. The Croatian state still glorifies ethnic cleansing and, unfortunately, the ideology and the spirit of ustashism live in that country. Every year, we witness the fact that Croatia celebrates the expulsion and killings of Serb civilians instead of condemning the crimes. That is a big disgrace, not only to the Croatian state and its people, but also to the entire international community, which, three decades on, has still not condemned this crime in an adequate manner," Popovic said.

"This is not a matter of the past, but of conscience. The more than 70,000 Serbs expelled from Western Slavonia starting from 1991 have the right to remembrance, but also to justice, which they have been denied for years. We remember, lest this ever be forgotten or repeated," he said.

The May 1-2, 1995 "Operation Flash" was conducted with a clear objective of full ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the territory of Western Slavonia - within 36 hours, in a brutal and planned aggression conducted by Croatian armed forces, 283 innocent Serb civilians were killed in the area and more than 30,000 others were driven out of their homes.

"The victims were women, children and the elderly - innocent civilians who did not bear arms and had taken no part in war operations. Their only 'sin' was that they were Serbs and Orthodox Christians," the statement said.