The Serb National Council held its central commemoration for killed Serb civilians, calling for effective war crime investigations and equal respect for all victims, regardless of ethnicity.
The Serb National Council (SNV) held its central commemoration on Monday, August 3, 2026, in the village of Komić near Udbina, paying tribute to Serb civilians who perished during and after the military-police operation Storm. On the occasion of the 31st anniversary, the SNV also released its 19th Statement of Remembrance, emphasizing that the absence of justice for war crimes remains an open wound in Croatian society.
Those gathered remembered the tragic events of the summer of 1995, when eight civilians were killed or went missing in Komić. Among the victims were 93-year-old Sava Lavrnić and her son Petar, while the immobile Marija Brkljač died in a fire in her home, witnessed by her daughter. According to data presented at the commemoration, by early August 1995 only eight residents remained in the village, and after August 12, Komić was completely deserted. On that same day, nearly all of the village's 89 houses were destroyed by fire.
SNV President Boris Milošević warned that more than three decades later, no indictment has been filed for the crimes in Komić. "Komić as a crime scene is not an isolated case. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia recently ruled for the third time that no effective investigation has been conducted into the war crime against eight civilians in Uzdolje near Knin. Ineffective investigation repeats from village to village, from case to case," Milošević said at the commemoration.
Milošević stressed that the SNV pays tribute to all civilian victims of the war, regardless of their ethnicity, also recalling the killing of five Croatian civilians in Lovinac in 1991. "No victim, Croatian or Serb, deserves to be forgotten. A victim's innocence does not depend on which side they were born on. We demand that no victim be divided into more or less important, into those deserving investigation and those waiting in vain," he said.
This year's SNV Statement of Remembrance, read at the commemoration, emphasized that the lack of prosecution for war crimes against Serb civilians represents an open wound. "There are no trials for these crimes, investigations are rare, progress slowly, or have not moved from the start. Thus, this almost complete standstill strengthens our belief that perpetrators will never be held accountable," the Statement reads.
The Statement also recalls the broader context of suffering: "We do not forget how our compatriots from Dalmatia, Lika, Banija, and Kordun had to leave their homes overnight, the long columns waiting for days on the roads, the smoke rising for days from the ashes of burned homes and entire villages." It also highlighted that recognition of civilian victim status remains difficult, and their suffering and trauma remain publicly invisible and socially unrecognized.
In the Statement, the SNV expressed regret that Croatia and Serbia have still not found a path to jointly resolve the issue of missing persons. "The grief of families who have been waiting for three decades for answers about the fate of their loved ones knows no borders and does not wait for an agreement; it simply endures," it states, adding that hope remains for finding the strength and will for cooperation between the two states.
Many guests attended the commemoration, including MP Anja Šimpraga from the SDSS, staff from the Serbian Embassy in Croatia, and representatives of various political parties and associations from Serbia. Priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church held a memorial service for the victims. At the end of the event, the names of the eight killed from Komić were read: Marija Brkljač, Petar and Sava Lavrnić, and Borka, Milica, Milka, Rada, and Staka.
