"We will never forget that horrible column of displaced people from Knin to Belgrade which permanently testifies to a big and unpunished crime," Kostunica said in a written statement on the occasion of the military and police operation with on 5 August 1995 liberated the biggest part of Croatian territory until then occupied by Serb rebels.
Kostunica said that on that day "thousands of innocent people were killed and hundreds of thousands of Serbs were expelled... from their homes in which they had lived for centuries".
"When an entire people is expelled under threat of destruction, it is clear that the consequences of this big tragedy can never be corrected," Kostunica said. He underlined that it was necessary to seek a way "to diminish the injustice and to constantly work on the return of the displaced to their homes, with full safety and respect for human rights".
All Belgrade media today ran stories about the Storm anniversary, underlining that the operation "led to the exodus or more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia".
The print and electronic media cited the Veritas Documentation and Information Centre, whose figures show that 1,960 Serbs were killed or went missing in Operation Storm, including 1,205 civilians, of whom 522 women and 12 children.
Some media said that "11 years later, 'Storm' remains the number one topic in Serbia-Croatia relations because of entirely different views of the event. Whereas Serbia on Friday marks the anniversary of an operation during which thousands of Serbs were killed and about 20,000 houses were set on fire, Croatia on Saturday celebrates Victory And Homeland Thanksgiving Day".