ZAGREB, Aug 4 (Hina) - Croatia on Tuesday marks the eighth anniversary of the liberation of Knin, the centre of the Serb rebellion in the first half of the 1990s. The town was liberated in a combined military and police operation
known as Operation Storm. Croatian forces entered Knin at noon on 5 August 1995, displaying a Croatian flag on the Knin castle, which symbolically marked the end of the Serb occupation of the town and other areas. Local Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav People's Army, rebelled against the Croatian government in the early 1990s, shortly after the first multi-party elections and establishment of non-communist rule. Croats popularly refer to the beginning of the Serb rebellion as a "log revolution", because Serb insurgents cut down trees over the main road that links the capital Zagreb to the Adriatic coast, effectively severing the country's north from the south. After that Se
ZAGREB, Aug 4 (Hina) - Croatia on Tuesday marks the eighth
anniversary of the liberation of Knin, the centre of the Serb
rebellion in the first half of the 1990s. The town was liberated in a
combined military and police operation known as Operation Storm.
Croatian forces entered Knin at noon on 5 August 1995, displaying a
Croatian flag on the Knin castle, which symbolically marked the end
of the Serb occupation of the town and other areas.
Local Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav People's Army,
rebelled against the Croatian government in the early 1990s,
shortly after the first multi-party elections and establishment of
non-communist rule.
Croats popularly refer to the beginning of the Serb rebellion as a
"log revolution", because Serb insurgents cut down trees over the
main road that links the capital Zagreb to the Adriatic coast,
effectively severing the country's north from the south.
After that Serb rebels set up a para-state which they wanted to
annex to Serbia. During more than four years of the existence of
that state, almost all Croats were expelled from the occupied
areas. The small number of those who survived the occupation spoke
of crimes, looting and terror at the hands of Serbs.
Croatian forces launched Operation Storm at 0500 hours on 4 August
1995, and within the next 84 hours liberated the occupied areas
stretching from Sveti Rok, Gracac, Benkovac, Plitvice to Knin.
The operation culminated in the liberation of Knin on 5 August 1995,
which is celebrated in Croatia as Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving
Day.
(hina) vm sb