Croatia marks crushed uprising

CROATIA: With banners, songs and rousing speeches, Croatia celebrated a decade since it crushed a rebel Serb uprising yesterday, while Belgrade denounced the glorification of an onslaught that turned some 200,000 Serb civilians into refugees.

Thousands of Croats packed the centre of Knin, the capital of the Krajina region that was seized in 1991 by Serb insurgents, to remember the 84-hour Operation Storm that routed the rebels four years later and reclaimed a third of Croatian territory for Zagreb.

But as Serbia seethed at the flag-waving event, Croatian leaders tempered celebrations with a pledge to punish those who attacked Serb civilians and razed their homes in Krajina, including the commander of Operation Storm, Gen Ante Gotovina.

"The Storm was a magnificent operation aimed at liberating Croatian territory, and that is the only truth," said prime minister Ivo Sanader, a day after his Serb counterpart called the action "the biggest ethnic cleansing since World War Two".

But while hailing Operation Storm as "the culmination of our war of independence and the climax of our long fight for freedom and sovereignty", Mr Sanader added: "But we must separate it from the shameful acts that followed against Serbs."

President Stipe Mesic struck the same note, well aware that the European Union was watching events in Knin, after freezing accession talks with Croatia over its failure to locate or capture Gen Gotovina, who is still widely regarded as a hero in his homeland.

"Those who violated the laws of war must be held accountable," Mr Mesic declared. "We must ask for forgiveness from those wronged in the name of Croatia." Operation Storm scarred Serbia, where many of the refugees it created still live, surviving on meagre benefits in grim housing that was supposed to be temporary.

It also enhanced Serb feelings of persecution by the West, which stood by as Croatian troops attacked the outnumbered and outgunned Serb forces using weapons which had been acquired with the tacit approval of Washington, in contravention of an official embargo.