Operation Storm - War Crimes

War Crimes

During Operation Storm and its aftermath, the ICTY has concluded that a total of 324 people, both civilians and soldiers were killed. At least 150,000 Serb civilians left the Krajina before the operation. Before the numbers were official, the Croatian Helsinki Committee estimated 116 people were killed, while Serbs contended 1200 civilians were killed. The difference in the numbers of murdered civilians might be explained by the fact, that the distinction between soldiers and civilians was difficult (e.g. Slobodan Lazarevic: "Everyone was to blame for something, no one could say that they had not done anything and, therefore, all had a reason to depart from Croatia").

Out of the 122 Serbian Orthodox churches in the area, 17 were damaged, but only one was completely destroyed.According to a claim in the September 1995 communiqué from the Permanent Mission of Croatia to the U.N., most of the damage to the Orthodox churches occurred prior to the Serbian retreat.

In the years following Operation Storm, Croatian authorities have uncovered over 3,000 bodies, presumed by the authorities to be murdered Croatians, in mass graves in the former Krajina territory, buried since the Serb ethnic cleansing campaign in 1991.

These war crimes were subsequently analyzed in the ICTY trial of Gotovina et al between 2001 and 2012.