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Morning paper news sport j2 money culture scene video subscription BY MICHAEL MARTENS The most prominent German newspaper about Oluja: What exactly happened in the Dalmatian hinterland 25 years ago? According to general estimates, hundreds of Serbs were killed then, and thousands of houses were set on fire Writes: Jutarnji.hrPosted: August 3, 2020 5:14 pm Serbian refugees from Krajina in 1995. Serbian refugees from Krajina in 1995. Dragan Milovanovic Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail RELATED NEWS Milorad Pupovac and Boris Milosevic RECOGNIZED VICTIMS Serbian National Council: 'It is necessary to shed light on crimes against Serbs and build a society of tolerance' HDZ VETERAN Seks delighted with SDSS's step forward, coming to Grubori, but not with Milanovic: 'I'm getting liver' On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the "Storm" military-police operation, the renowned German conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) published an article by its journalist Michael Martens entitled "Damage after the storm". (Martens has recently attracted the attention of the Croatian public primarily with a controversial text based on an interview with singer Marko Perković-Thompson , which was also reported by DW), writes Deustche Welle . At the beginning of the text, Martens briefly explains to the German audience what is being marked in Knin and announces that "President Zoran Milanovic , a Social Democrat who often has very clear views and is therefore not very popular among often right-wing Croatian military veterans, will share medals there." Knin was the capital of the "Republika Srpska Krajina", a criminal entity established by rebel Croatian Serbs with significant military assistance from Belgrade, and from which tens of thousands of Croats were expelled. " In the continuation, however, the author emphasizes that this 'Day of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving' has another side, and that this time too there is a question to which there is no simple answer: what exactly happened in the Dalmatian hinterland 25 years ago? "It is indisputable, with the exception of nationalist circles in Serbia, that Croatia of course had the right to liberate its territory and territorially consolidate state independence, which was proclaimed in 1991 with great bloodshed." However, Croatia is happy to deny the fact that "this release was accompanied by crimes against the Serb civilian population, which, as politicians in Zagreb often like to claim, were not just miserable individual cases," Martens writes. "The cases of robbery were relatively easier," the text reads. The author cites statements by UN representatives who said at the time that there was "clear evidence" of numerous cases of looting of abandoned Serb houses by members of the Croatian army, Deustche Welle writes . But events like the one in the village of Grubori were not easy at all, where six elderly villagers, who did not want to leave their homes, were killed after the military operation was long over - and for which no one was ever held accountable. limited to Grubore only ". "Precisely because they were afraid of it, most Serbs fled in front of the oncoming Croatian troops. (...) About 200,000 Serbs fled. Only four years later, in Kosovo, did even more people leave their homes - now it was Albanians fleeing Serbian soldiers. " The author further recalls the testimonies that Serbs often left their homes from time to time, there were still undrinkable glasses of beer on the tables in cafes, there were still leftovers on the plates in restaurants, and the lights were on in the apartments. "It is certainly true that among the Serbs who fled there were those who had good reasons for doing so, as they had previously committed war crimes against their Croatian neighbors. But that does not make the crimes of some liberators uncommitted. Hundreds were generally killed at the time. Serbs, thousands of houses were set on fire, "FAZ writes. Martens explains below that the Hague tribunal called General Ante Gotovina to account for these crimes a few years later , which caused outrage "even among politically moderate Croats", because Gotovina was "put on the same level as the Serbian mass murderers Radovan Karadzic. and Ratko Mladic ". They were satisfied with the acquittal of Gotovina in the appellate procedure, the author writes, but notes that this then led to "the fact that the crimes committed then, which the Hague Tribunal never questioned, have not been sentenced to date." Concluding the text, the author emphasizes that "some of the damage after the Storm has proven to be irreparable to this day. For many" Krajina Serbs ", the centuries-old history of settlement in that area ended in 1995". "Not only administrative barriers were placed under the feet of those who wanted to return. Thus, the International Red Cross announced that in 1996, a year after the end of the war, there was an atmosphere of lawlessness in the liberated areas, which caused great fear to the remaining Serbs. As far back as 1996, almost 100 Serb houses were destroyed, continued to be intimidated, threatened and harassed. Abandoned Serb houses were mined to intimidate potential returnees. " In the meantime, this is a thing of the past, but the consequences are permanent, and still visible today, the author concludes: "Before the war, Serbs made up twelve percent of Croatia's population, and today not even four percent," the text concludes. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.