Selaković: Serbia will never allow new “Storms” again

Criminal operation “Storm” was the crown of the infernal plan, which began with the denial of collective rights to the Serbs in Croatia and ended with the denial of the right to exist to an entire nation.

About a quarter of a million of our compatriots from the former Republika Srpska Krajina, those who were lucky enough to survive the calvary of that fateful August 1995, eventually ended up in the aegis of the Republika Srpska and mother Serbia, which will forever cherish the memory of the martyrdom of the Serbs from Krajina.

In Croatia, 5 August is celebrated as the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, while in Serbia and Republika Srpska it is a day of mourning due to the largest ethnic cleansing in Europe after the Second World War – and it will remain so, because oblivion does not heal, it breeds new wounds.

The descendants of those who survived the Ustasha pits, camps, bullets, sledgehammers and srbosjek (“Serb cutter”), the descendants of our new martyrs whose faces watch us warningly from the frescoes and iconostasis became martyrs as well, but rather than with oblivion, they replaced their suffering and eternal pain with a renewed life strength and sincere love for Serbia, and Serbia loves them back equally and sincerely.

Serbia and Croatia are neighbouring countries, and for the sake of the future, they must build better relations, cooperate economically and try not to pass on prejudices and inherited animosities towards the other to new generations, however, it is unlikely that two views of the “Storm” and some other historical events can ever be reconciled, just like executioner and victim or joy and sadness cannot be reconciled.

By remembering all the victims of the “Storm”, burnt houses and deserted Serbian towns and villages, today our entire nation sheds a tear, vowing to forgive but not forget, and firmly telling everyone that there will never be another “Storm”, because Serbia and the Serbian people will not allow that.