Serbs commemorate victims from Croatia's 1995 military operation

Serbia and Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Tuesday jointly marked the 20th anniversary of the expulsion of Serbs in a Croatian military operation.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and Republika Srpska's President Milorad Dodik joined thousands of people at a ceremony held on the bank of Sava River near the northwestern Serbian town of Sremska Raca.

Addressing the crowd, Vucic said Serbia is building good relations with its neighbor Croatia, but is not willing to forget what happened two decades ago when hundreds of thousands of Serbs were expelled from their homes.

"We are in peace with Croatia. We will maintain it and we wish for best relations in the future. I hope that also we will soon nurture friendship within the European house of nations. However, we send from this place a clear message that the crime should be forgiven, but never forgotten," he said.

He said that in 1995, some 250,000 people crossed Sava River to flee from Croatia's Operation Storm, which left hundreds of ethnic Serbs dead.

"The results of their (Croatians) victory were burned houses, families torn apart, emptied villages," Vucic said, adding that the Croatian operation was the biggest crisis of its kind in Europe since the Second World War.

While Serbia commemorated its victims, Croatia held a military parade to celebrate the operation's victory in Zagreb. A grand ceremony is also expected to be held on Wednesday in Knin, capital of Srpska Krajina, which was inhabited by thousands of Serbs two decades ago.

The Operation Storm, launched in the areas controlled by Serbs in southern Croatia, still casts a shadow on the relations between Serbia and Croatia.

While Croatia views the operation as a great victory that enabled it to regain the control of 18.4 percent of its territory, Serbia remembers the huge suffering it inflicted on the Serbs. Endi