Croatia marks the 30th anniversary of the surrender of Serb forces in Topusko

The surrender brought an end to the four year existence of the so-called SAO Krajina parastate and marked the effective end of the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serbian war of aggression that had started five years earlier.

On August 8th 1995 Yugoslav People's Army and later Serbian Army Colonel, Čedo Bulat, saluted Croatian General Petar Stipetić, congratulated the Croatian Army on its victory, and signed the terms of the surrender of some five thousand Serbian soldiers near Topusko. This marked the symbolic end of Operation Storm, which in just five days liberated most of the occupied territory and finally broke the Serbian aggression.

On the occasion a commemoration was held in Glina to pay tribute to the roughly five hundred prisoners of war interred at the Serb-run Glina Concentration Camp. Dubravko Habulin was a POW at the Glina concentration camp: "There beat us regardless of what we did, if you said anything or if you stayed silent. They broke two of ribs, fractured my hip, and contusions covering my entire body."

The President of the Croatian Association of POWs from Sisak-Moslavina County, Davor Ančić, was also interred at the Glina concentration camp: "I spent 433 days in the Glina concentration camp, sixteen months. I was imprisoned as a civilian. All of us interred there were subjected to harsh torture, and as you can see here eight of our friends were murdered in a treacherous manner. It was very difficult to survive. Those of us who survived were lucky to do so."

Source: HRT