Serb Exodus
By 9 August, virtually the entire Serb population of the Krajina was on the move, crossing into Serb-controlled territory in Bosnia. The exodus was complicated by the presence of armed Krajina Serb soldiers among the civilian refugees. A large refugee column that was moving on the Glina-Dvor road during August 1995 suffered casualties on two occasions: a Serbian report mentions Croatian army shelling of the column, while a Croatian report mentions tanks of the Serbian 2nd Tank Brigade with Mile Novaković making their way through the road without regard to Serb civilians.
The Croatian government claimed that around 90,000 Serb civilians had fled:
Upon instructions from my Government I have the honour to address you concerning a letter circulated as a document of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
— E/CN.4/Sub.2/1995/45, dated 11 August 1995
Serbian sources claimed as many as 250,000 refugees. The United Nations put the figure at 150,000–200,000. The BBC reports the number to be 200,000.
The Krajina Serbs fled approaching Croat forces to Serb-held parts of Bosnia and Serbia. The European Union Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt called it on 7 August 1995, "the most efficient ethnic cleansing we've seen in the Balkans." The Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Bildt's assessment was "unfounded."
Read more about this topic: Operation Storm
Famous quotes containing the word exodus:
“Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 12:30.