Ministry of Veterans: False Narrative of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights about Operation Storm

The Ministry of Croatian Veterans has called out the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) for building a false narrative about Operation Storm that insults all Croatian veterans and that, under the guise of confronting the past, systematically implements a one-sided approach to history.

Operation Storm is not and will never be a shared trauma for the Republic of Croatia and its citizens, the Ministry said in connection with the Initiative's latest activities and public appearances through the project 'When You Say Storm'.

On Thursday, this non-government organization published on its website a call for young people from Croatia and Serbia to apply for participation in the Erasmus + exchange program ‘When You Say Storm’, which will take place from April 24 to 30 in Zagreb and in Banovina, i.e. in Sisak and Petrinja. The goal of the program, it emphasizes, is to create a space for the exchange of one's own views and memories of Storm and the formation of a shared narrative.

“Operation Storm - two stories, two narratives and two memories. One liberation, one suffering and a shared transgenerational trauma. Two contradictory stories that have shaped numerous generations for 30 years,” the Initiative states on its website.

The Ministry called out the Initiative for systematically implementing a one-sided approach to history under the guise of confronting the past and for having no place in their projects for the victims of Vukovar, Škabrnja, the victims of Saborsko, Kostrici, Slavonski Brod, etc., nor for the thousands of Croatian civilians who were brutally murdered in the Homeland War.

“They call for a 'just culture of remembrance', but they consciously omit the truth about the victims who died in the Greater Serbian aggression against Croatia. Such a selective sense of justice insults the dignity of Croatian defenders and all victims of the Homeland War,” the Ministry emphasizes and concludes that it is obvious that the goal of the ‘When You Say Storm’ project is to equate the Greater Serbian aggressor with the Croatian defenders.

Source: HRT