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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Day of remembrance of killed, exiled Serbs in Operation "Storm" marked

Belgrade/Prijedor, 4 August 2023

President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said this evening in Prijedor that the armed action of the Croatian army "Storm" is the biggest ethnic cleansing in Europe since 1945.

Vucic said in an address to those gathered at the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of the Serbs who were killed or exiled in the armed action "Storm" that in recent days we have witnessed the hypocrisy and double standards of the great powers towards the Serbs.

Various expressions are used for "Storm", but they do not want to say that it is the biggest ethnic cleansing in Europe since 1945, Vucic pointed out.

The President of Serbia reminded that, regarding the indictment that was made in Belgrade in the case of a war crime on the Petrovac road, no one from the world, not from any Western country, said that the Serbian prosecution did an excellent job and that the death of a child must not go unpunished.

That is why it is important that Serbs are united, that we stick together and say what happened, and that we do not give up on it, the Serbian President said.

According to him, Prijedor was the first stop of the column of exiles, somewhere on the way to freedom, knowing that there is no way for them to survive under those who killed their children.

President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik said that the "Storm" action was a joint criminal action in order to ethnically cleanse the territory of Krajina from the Serb population.

Dodik stated that we were taught and raised to keep silent about our sufferings.

It was almost a common reflex of the Serbian people not to talk about their sufferings so as not to accidentally offend the one who committed the crime. We are here for the ninth time to mark the suffering and to say that we will not forget, Dodik pointed out and added that he will never allow anyone to belittle the Serbian people and our suffering.

Serbian Patriarch Porfirije assessed that the Serbian people gathered in Prijedor to pray for all the innocent victims on 4 August 1995, and pointed out that it was the largest violent exodus in Europe.

We gathered to pray for our brothers and sisters from Dalmatia, Lika, Banija and Kordun, for whom Prijedor was the first stop of salvation during the violent exodus of our people in the summer of 1995, Patriarch Porfirije said.

The Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church pointed out that at that time some stopped in Prijedor, while others continued on, hoping that better days would come.

For 1,893 of them, there was no hope for better days, he added and appealed on everyone, religious leaders above all, to do everything to preserve and build peace among nations.

The commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of Serbs killed and exiled in the armed action "Storm" in Prijedor was attended by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zeljka Cvijanovic, as well as ministers of Serbia and Republic of Srpska.