An exhibition entitled “So We Do Not Forget – The Croatian Army’s Shelling of Refugee Columns on the Petrovačka Road and in Svodna” opened this evening in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Banja Luka.
Created by Janko Velimirović of the Veritas Documentation and Information Centre, the exhibition documents the suffering of Serbian civilians and refugees who fled during and after Operation Storm in August 1995.
The exhibition focuses on the air attack against a refugee convoy in the village of Janjila, near Bosanski Petrovac, on 7 August 1995, as well as the attack on another refugee column in Svodna, near Novi Grad, a day later.
Featuring documentary and archival materials, the exhibition aims to preserve the memory of civilians who lost their lives during the attacks.
A documentary film titled Petrovačka Road, directed by Tihana Bajić, was also screened in Banja Luka’s Liberation Park. The film examines the attack on Serbian refugees after they had already crossed into the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and, according to the film, no longer posed any military threat.
According to Veritas, Croatian military aircraft shelled the refugee convoys on 7 and 8 August 1995, killing 13 civilians, including four children. No one has been held accountable for the attacks.
Operation Storm began on 4 August 1995 with an offensive by Croatian forces and units of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia, resulting in the displacement of more than 220,000 Serbs.
Veritas’ updated records list 1,904 Serbs who were killed or remain missing during and after the operation, including 1,250 civilians, among them 10 children under the age of 14 and 566 women.
Source: Atv
