storm - Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog ...

On the fi rst day of Storm the decision of the RSK Supreme Defence Council led to the
exodus of the majority of the Serbian population from the occupied part of Croatia. It
was made public on 4 August at 2000 hours. According to the Decision, the evacuation
of the civil population of Northern Dalmatia and the southern part of Lika was being
organized for preventive and security reasons... Th e Supreme Council has chosen this
option in order to protect the civil population from possible further attacks by the Croatian
artillery and to relieve the Serbian fi ghters holding the defence lines of the burden of care for
their families. 536 One hour later the electronic surveillance platoon of the HV 1 st Guards
Brigade intercepted the information that ... the organized evacuation of women, children
and old people had started at the order of Milan Martić. 537 Th e events that followed are
well described by Jagoda, a 45-year-old mother of two minor children, in her account
of the suff ering of the people led by its leaders into exile: On that day, when Krajina fell,
on 4 August, I was still working. We were then in a barracks, in the shelter. I just heard
people talking about who had died. When things calmed down, I went home. We asked our
commander whether we would run, retreat? He said we were not going anywhere. I came
home, put the children to bed. We had three blankets in the cellar. Th ere were also some
neighbours. Th en a man came and told us to get going. Out of fear and panic we forgot to
take some clothes. We just cared the children, because they said that bombing was expected
in the morning. I just took those blankets to tuck in the children. Th e countryside was
desolate, and houses were burning by the road. My cousin was left behind. Th e column was
intersected, and he walked on corpses, for 9 kilometres, from Topusko to Dvor na Uni. Th e
Muslims had cut the column and slaughtered everyone. My children were terribly afraid...
As we approached Topusko we heard shelling. We passed a bend, and there was a nice small
house by the road. Th e shell struck it. It was horrible. Th e house was burning, with people
in it. Before that we had still been able to see children playing outside... Th ere were pieces
of sheet metal all over the road. We heard moans, cries... Th ey formed columns. Some went
faster, others lagged behind. But nobody paid any attention to others, to the sick and the
dying. One of my neighbours, a cousin of mine, died on the road. Her son drove her, dead,
for a while. But then he had to stop, because the children panicked, and just tipped her into
the roadside ditch, covered her with some branches and went on. You can imagine how that
man has felt since. And he had no opportunity to do anything. To bury her. Children were
also dying. Th e heat was terrible. 538
When Storm started, Croatian media published on 4 August in the morning the
message of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Dr. Franjo Tuđman, to ethnic Serbs,
Croatian citizens. He called upon members of the Serbian paramilitary to surrender
536 M. Sekulić, “Knin je pao u Beogradu” (KninFell in Belgrade), 179.
537 MORH, GSHV: 1st Guards Br., Electronic Surv. Platoon, cl. 804-08/95-022, reg. no. 1111-11-95-215, 4
Aug. 1995; Daily report.
538 «Žene Krajine - rat. exodus i izbeglištvo» (Th e Women of the Krajina - War, Exodus and Exile), Vesna
Nikolić-Ristanović, Slobodanka Konstantinović-Vilić, Nataša Mrvić-Petrović, Ivana Stevanović, Branislava
Knežić: Institute for criminological and sociological studies, Belgrade, 1996, 127-128.
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