The 30th anniversary of the Medak Pocket military operation, one of the first offensive operations by the Croatian Army and police forces during the 1991-95 war for independence from Yugoslavia, was marked on Saturday in the town of Gospic.
Wreaths were laid by state officials including the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs Tomo Medved and the Defence Minister Mario Banozic, as well as surviving veterans of the operation and relatives of Croatian soldiers who were killed.
The main ceremony took place on Stjepan Radic Square in the centre of Gospic, with a parachute jump by paratroopers, a flyover by military planes, a musical programme and speeches.
Medved said that the operation from September 9 to 11, 1993 against the paramilitary units of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, an unrecognised Serb wartime statelet, was important in terms of limiting the enemy’s scope for military operations in Gospic and the wider Lika region in central Croatia.
The operation also paved the way for a wider liberation of territory occupied by Serb rebels in Operation Storm in August 1995, he added.
“All the military and police units that participated in Medak Pocket conducted the operation in just two days, and one of the important goals was to demonstrate the ability of our armed forces to carry out an offensive operation. And we succeeded in that,” he said.
Medved noted that “six members of the Croatian Army and seven members of the special police gave their lives in this operation, and 53 Croatian veterans were wounded”.
However the Medak Pocket operation became highly controversial after reports of war crimes by Croatian fighters were sent from the field by members of UN peacekeeping forces.
Croatian troops killed 23 Serb civilians and four captured soldiers during the withdrawal and destroyed several villages.
Under pressure from the UN over the crimes, Croatia agreed to withdraw its forces from the Medak Pocket.
The crimes committed during the operation were investigated by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the cases were then transferred to the Croatian judiciary in 2007.
The Croatian Supreme Court sentenced Croatian Army general Mirko Norac to six years in prison but acquitted his co-commander, General Rahim Ademi.
Norac was released at the end of November 2011 after serving more than two-thirds of his sentence.
Source : BalkanInsight
