BELGRADE -- Serbia and the Serb Republic (RS) today mark 16 years since Serb areas came under attack in western Slavonia, when Croatia launched its Operation Flash.
Croatia's military and police aggression that lasted 36 hours took place on May 1 and 2, 1995, when more than 280 people were murdered and some 15,000 expelled from their homes.
Some 16,000 Croat forces attacked from several directions, engaging about 4,000 members of the Republic of Serb Krajina military, launching the assault while the civilian population was still asleep.
Some 6,000 Serbs were surrounded by Croats and the towns of Pakrac and Okučani were cut off. There were more attackers than residents in these towns.
Instead of preventing the aggression, the UN peacekeepers, who were warned in time by Croatia's generals, decided to withdraw to safe positions.
The Documentation-Information Center Veritas data shows that 283 Serbs were either killed or are listed as missing, 57 among them women, and nine children under the age of 14.
Croats buried 168 victims marking them as unidentified. Only last year the remains of 52 persons killed in the onslaught were exhumed for identification.
Starting from 1991, a total of 67,000 Serbs were driven out of the western Slavonia area, while only 1,500, mostly elderly, returned to their homes.
Croatia's courts and the Hague Tribunal alike failed to indict anyone for the crimes committed against Serbs in this region.
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