WUNRN
The Republic of Serbian
Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb
entity within Croatia.
Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed
from 1991 to 1995. Krajina means "frontier". Its separatist
government engaged in a war for ethnic Serb independence from the Republic of Croatia, once Croatian borders had
been recognized by foreign states in August 1991 and February 1992. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Serbian_Krajina
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Secularism Is a Woman's Issue
BROKEN DREAMS OF GREATER
By Jasmina Tesanovic, November 20, 2012
"Lunchtime at Rosa House, a woman-run shelter in
A couple of days ago, the two former members of the Croatian military won a
"not guilty" sentence in the Hague international war crime tribunal.
I was not present in the general headquarters of the Croatian army while
they were deciding on their "Operation Storm" action of 1995. I don’t
know if the telephone rang there. I also don’t know if President Bill Clinton
personally told them to go ahead with the largest land offensive since World
War II, because the CIA would help. That is what certain Serbian newspapers
published recently.
I have a remarkable lack of knowledge about world paramilitary
conspiracies, secret chambers in the
Consider those days in August 1995, when that "Operation Storm"
took place. I stood at the border between
"Dreams of home in a gymnasium of strangers." Photo: Lisa Kahane,
1995. From "The Suitcase: Refugee Voices from Bosnia and Croatia."
I saw angry Serbian soldiers tearing off their military insignia because
they were given orders by their military to abandon the region without
fighting. I also saw people being given food and shelter by the local Serbian
population. I heard the refugee stumbling towards an unknown destiny, since
they had lost everything.
Operation Storm put a swift and sudden end in to four years of fighting for
Serbian autonomy inside
They rejected a Croatian identity and passport, preferring their own rules
and ideas. Their most important aspiration was to live within the Greater
Serbia promised to them by Milosevic and his generals. Some were kissing the
Serbian flag and the picture of Milosevic. Most of them were tearing the flag
and swearing at the broken promises and the reeling military defeat of their
beloved leader.
Later, I saw the endless caravan of Krajina refugees being routed by the
Serbian police outside
I don’t know where those people ended up. Their exact number is vague, it
varies in the telling, from two hundred thousand to half a million displaced
ethnic refugees.
Later I lived as a neighbor and friend to a family of four from Krajina.
They had managed to arrive that day in
The father and the boys found work immediately, humble physical jobs. They
rented two rooms in my courtyard house. All day the wife washed long shirts and
sheets, so that they would stay clean and decent. Rada was a beautiful woman
who once had a nice job in the
Rada hadn’t blamed
I asked her why, she answered: because I told you a secret. It’s the Serbs
who brought us misery and not the Croats, but don’t tell anybody.
"First night under a roof for refugees from Krajina." Photo: Lisa
Kahane, 1995. From "The Suitcase: Refugee Voices from Bosnia and Croatia."
Things haven’t changed so much since 1995, for the Serbian refugees from
War crimes were committed on all sides, as people in
But it’s surprising how forgiving the world can be.
During the shelling of
Somehow, she really believed she could keep that fact a secret. She also
had a strange faith that sniper bullets fired downtown would hit only the Muslim
enemy within her streets.
Two years ago, I happened to meet a veteran Croatian soldier from Operation
Storm. Like a lot of demobilized soldiers, he was still fond of military gear,
and he was wearing a "boonie hat" from an American pal who had served
in
I wrote these stories down, I took photos, because I wanted to bear
witness, and not to forget. I also want other people not to forget these
tragedies, even though we must have the courage to go on as if the world has
found us innocent. We must live our lives in peace henceforth, as if this
atrocities were not committed, and although most of them will stay forever
unpunished.
The courage to forgive should not mean to forget: I will never forget those
three days on the Croatian border in early August 1995, writing my book
"The Suitcase." The contradictions and bitter disenchantment of those
betrayed people is especially memorable. But I am becoming old-fashioned, and
my stories of bloody regional mayhem are frankly boring. The world is a big
place, with other, newer regions of slaughter, and Balkan tales are not global
bestseller material. They don’t respect the time-honored James Bond canon of
sex, snobbery and sadistic thrills, and even the weirdest Balkan conspiracy
theories can’t match up to a Dan Brown plot.
Still, somebody has to do the dirty work. Commonly, it is the women who
collect the historical rubble. So, let it be the likes of me.