To Croatia and Serbia, Operation Oluja means very different things. For Croatians, it is a moment of victory and celebration. For Serbians, it brings memories of war crimes and forced displacement.
In early August 1995, the Croatian army recatured the breakaway region of Krajina in just 84 hours. Most of the ethnic Serb population fled.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the operation, authorities in the Croatian capital Zagreb held the largest military parade in the country's history.
On Thursday, 3,500 soldiers, police and war veterans marched along Vukovar Avenue in the capital. They were marking the events of 4 to 7 August 1995, when Operation Oluja – Storm in Serbo-Croatian – crushed the self-declared Serbian Republic of Krajina and restored control over 14 percent of Croatia’s territory.
Tens of thousands of people watched the parade.
They saw some of the army’s newest equipment, including Turkish Bayraktar drones, German-made Leopard tanks and 12 second-hand French Rafale fighter jets. This was only the fourth military parade in Croatia since independence in 1991.
“Today, everyone will have seen the strength of the Croatian state,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on public TV.
President Zoran Milanovic said once again that Operation Oluja was key to changing the course of the 1991–1995 war.
'Victory for Croatia'
“We are fully aware – and I want those who succeed us to be aware too – that this is a victory for Croatian soldiers, the Croatian people and the Croatian leaders of the time,” said Milanović, who is also head of the armed forces, before the parade began.
More commemorations are planned for Monday 5 August – a key date in the operation and a national holiday in Croatia called Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day.
But the war left deep scars.
The Croatian Helsinki Committee said 677 civilians were killed during Operation Oluja and over 22,000 homes destroyed. Some Serbian sources say around 2,000 people died.
The offensive forced almost the entire Serbian population of Krajina – about 200,000 people – to flee. The Republic of Krajina had been set up in late 1990 by Serb leaders who rejected Croatia’s independence.
Croatian airstrikes and artillery then hit convoys of tractors, buses and cars carrying people to safety in Serbia.
It was not until 2020 – 25 years later – that Croatia officially expressed regret for the crimes committed against Serbs. Milanović said at the time, “We celebrate victory; we hate no one.”
Serbia denounces ‘ethnic cleansing’
Few Serbs have not returned to Krajina. Their families had lived there since the 1600s, when the Habsburg Empire gave them land in exchange for guarding the border with Ottoman-controlled Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Today, there are just over 120,000 Serbs in Croatia – five times fewer than in 1991, just before the war.
In Serbia, Operation Oluja is viewed as a large-scale act of ethnic cleansing. A memorial event is held each year on 3 August, the day before the 1995 offensive began.
This year’s ceremony was called “Oluja is a pogrom, we will remember it forever”. It was attended by President Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister Duro Macut and the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije.
The Serbian government has also advised citizens not to travel through Croatia between 1 and 10 August.
In both countries, commemorations are marked by nationalism. Each side blames the other and there has been little effort to reconcile.
Attempts at dialogue have often been attacked.
In 2020, Boris Milosevic – a Serb political leader in Croatia – joined official Croatian commemorations. Several ministers in Belgrade called it “shameful” and “humiliating for the entire Serbian nation”.
But some Croatians are also questioning how the event is remembered.
“The Croatian government has decided to celebrate the end of the war by celebrating the war industry,” said the Centre for Peace Studies.
“Tanks do not feed people, weapons do not heal.”
