Events held on Wednesday in the town of Knin in Croatia to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Operation Storm had a chaotic, aggressively nationalist air, according to press reports. One local reporter commented on the crowd’s rowdy reception of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, and its hostility toward opposition figures.
“It all looks like a fairground. Everyone who is not from the HDZ (party), except Milan Bandic, is being whistled at. He and HDZ President Tomislav Karamarko received a large round of applause, while the most adored one is Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. Everyone rushed toward her, wanting to touch her. Everyone else has been brutally whistled at and insulted. In this entire chaos, nobody’s paying any attention to the veterans,” said the report.
Witnesses also reported pro-fascist rhetoric at the celebrations:
The Ustasha greeting, “For Home – Ready,” was also heard from “several of those gathered at the main square in Knin,” as were “nationalist chants and songs.” One of those has the lyrics, “We Croats don’t drink wine, we drink the blood of Chetniks from Knin”….There was also applause during the mass for Marko Perkovic Thompson,” the website said, in reference to the Croatian entertainer who glorifies the Ustasha.
Speaking at commemoration events, President Grabar-Kitarovic criticized the ceremonies of mourning organized by Serb leaders, and denied that Operation Storm was a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Croatia’s Serb population.
“We grieve for every lost life, both Croat and Serb, and I emphasize that the cause of this was Milosevic’s expansionist policy,” said she, and also stressed that the Hague Tribunal’s rulings acquitting Croatian generals accused of committing war crimes “gave international legitimacy to Operation Storm.”
“No one denies that after Storm crimes and murders took place, but Storm was a clean action,” said the Croatian president.
