Operation Storm 20 years on

Twenty years ago to the day, the Croatian army launched Operation Storm.

The objective was to retake control of Serbian-occupied territory inside Croatia.

It pitted some 130,000 Croatian troops against an estimated 30,000 Serb fighters.

Both sides still disagree on what happened during the four-day offensive.

Separatists had seized the region around Knin and drove out its Croat population, declaring it as the Republic of Serbian Krajina.

Just some eighty four hours later, Croatian forces took back control of the disputed region.

Hundreds of civilians were killed.

Franjo Tudjman, the president of Croatia, was hailed as hero on the streets of Zagreb.

Yet that military operation saw some 200,000 ethnic Serbs flee their homes.

They fled into today’s Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia, drawing very little condemnation from Western powers at the time.

Most of them would never return.