The parliamentary representative of the Serbian national minority issued an emotional message on the position of Serbs ahead of Victory Day, without mentioning the war crimes that preceded Operation Storm.
On the very Day of Victory and Homeland Gratitude, August 5, 2026, Anja Šimpraga, the parliamentary representative of the Serbian national minority, addressed the public from Knin with a message on social media. In it, she described the enduring sense of isolation felt by her community. "31 years, the same feeling. Alone in 1995, but alone in 2026 as well. Despite everything, we exist. Serbs in Croatia," her post reads. However, throughout the entire text, there was no room to mention the genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbs in the early 1990s with the support of Belgrade, aimed at realizing the project of a Greater Serbia.
The representative further developed the thesis about the lack of mutual trust in the country. "Croatia lacks trust. Trust that we can talk about our memories without being anyone's enemies because of it. That we can mourn our victims while simultaneously respecting the pain of others," she wrote. She also clarified that her personal memory of 'Operation Storm' differs from that of most citizens, but she is convinced that "Croatia can be stronger when there is enough room for all our memories."
Beyond wartime symbolism, Šimpraga also presented Knin as a place yearning for investment and progress. In her post, she listed key projects she considers priorities: procuring a CT scanner for the hospital, reconstructing the state road Knin-Drniš, building a water supply network, rehabilitating lagoons, increasing kindergarten capacity, introducing single-shift schooling in the elementary school, and constructing new sports fields and a swimming pool. "Knin is a city for all of us, and we can build it together. That is the Croatia we all need," she concluded.
While Šimpraga speaks of a feeling of abandonment, the Croatian Memorial-Documentation Center for the Homeland War (HMDCDR) has released extensive data on the suffering that led to the military-police operation. It is estimated that at least 19,500 Croatian citizens lost their lives or are listed as missing during the Homeland War. According to a report submitted by President Franjo Tuđman at a joint session of both houses of Parliament on January 15, 1996, the Croatian side suffered 10,668 killed and 2,915 missing, totaling 13,583 victims, along with 37,180 wounded.
Among the killed civilians, 323 children were recorded, although it is emphasized that this number is not final. More than 70 percent of them died from direct enemy action, such as shelling, mines, or sniper fire. The total number of wounded reached 30,578, of whom 7,169 were civilians, 21,959 were Croatian defenders, 58 were UN peacekeepers, and 613 were enemy soldiers. Among the wounded civilians, there were 1,044 children. As a permanent consequence of injuries, 188 children were left with some form of physical disability: 56 with very severe, 92 with severe, and 40 with moderate disability. A total of 5,497 children lost one parent, while 74 children lost both parents.
In the territory under occupation, at least 5,100 people died, mostly of Serbian nationality, and the fate of 797 of them remains unresolved. General Milisav Sekulić of the Serbian Army of Krajina provided data on 3,496 killed and 1,857 missing on the Serbian side between June 1991 and August 1995. Since 1991, approximately 8,500 Croatian citizens passed through the network of Serbian camps located in Begejci, Belgrade, Bileća, Glina, Knin, Manjača, Morinj, Niš, Sremska Mitrovica, Stara Gradiška, and Stojićevo. Of these, 300 were killed in camps on the territory of Serbia.
The discovery of at least 145 mass graves and over 1,200 individual graves containing victims of Serbian crimes strongly suggests that the executions were systematically planned. From these graves, 3,782 bodies were exhumed, and the remains of 3,217 Croatian defenders and civilians were positively identified, as documented by author Ivan Grujić in the book "Imprisoned and Missing in the Homeland War." The wartime destruction destroyed or damaged 217,009 apartments, about 120 economic facilities, and 2,423 cultural monuments. Of that number, 495 are religious buildings, mostly Catholic churches in areas under Serbian occupation. In its final report from September 1999, the State Commission for the Inventory and Assessment of War Damage estimated total damage at 37.1 billion US dollars.
The HMDCDR documentation does not conceal crimes committed against the Serbian population either. On territory under Croatian control, before Operation Storm, individual civilians of Serbian nationality were killed in Gospić, Osijek, Sisak, and Paulin Dvor. Pakračka Poljana and the Medak Pocket area are recorded as sites of reprisals against Serbian civilians. After Operation Storm, 21 people of Serbian nationality lost their lives in the hamlets of Grubori, Varivode, and Gošići.
The conflict also left catastrophic demographic consequences for Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since the beginning of the Greater Serbian aggression, more than 400,000 Croats were forced to leave their homes. Serbian forces expelled about 210,000, and Bosniak-Muslim forces about 190,000 Croats. In President Tuđman's report from January 1996, it is stated that 9,909 Croats were killed or missing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while 20,649 were wounded.
