The AI said in a report published on Thursday that "in the aftermath of the operations members of the Croatian Army and police murdered, tortured, and forcibly expelled Croatian Serb civilians who had remained in the area as well as the withdrawing Croatian Serb armed forces".
"While Croatian courts have been vigorous in pursuing the prosecution of Croatian Serbs and other accused of committing war crimes against ethnic Croats, they have done little to tackle impunity for violations committed by members of the Croatian Army and police forces."
The AI claims that "crimes committed against Croatian Serbs during Operations "Flash" and "Storm", as well as in previous phases of the conflict are often not acknowledged, investigated, and their perpetrators have largely enjoyed impunity".
The organisation calls on "the Croatian authorities to immediately start fulfilling their obligation to bring to justice all those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1991-95 war, regardless of the ethnicity of the victims of the perpetrators". In this context, it referred to the case of the retired general Ante Gotovina who has been on the run since the UN war crimes tribunal issued an indictment against him in the summer of 2001.
Some foreign news agencies issued news items on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Operation Storm which Croatia is celebrating these days.
The dpa agency reported that "Croatia Thursday began celebrating the 10th anniversary of an offensive which broke a four-year Serb insurgency, while Serbs mourned it, branding it the 'greatest ethnic cleansing since World War II'."
"The anniversary, declared a Fatherland Thanksgiving holiday in Croatia, was celebrated by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and President Stjepan Mesic, with the central event scheduled for Friday in the ancient town of Knin, a former Serb stronghold," the dpa said.
"Operation "Oluja" (Storm) effectively ended a four-year Serb insurgency and wrangled control over a major chunk of Croatia's territory - the self-proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina - from rebel Serbs' hands. But military success was marred by the bombing of civilian refugee columns and other atrocities," the German agency reported.
The Slovene news agency STA reported that President Mesic and Prime Minister Sanader on Thursday held wreath-lying ceremonies at the main cemetery of Zagreb in tribute to the dead soldiers. Wreaths were also placed at the grave of the first Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, the STA added.
The STA quoted Sanader as saying that the result of Operation Storm was the liberation of one fifth of the country's territory and the operation remained a lasting inspiration.