Croatia | Was Operation Storm Legal?

On 4 August 1995, Croatia launched a huge military offensive - Operation Storm - to retake control of the breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina, the RSK. Over quarter of a century later, the anniversary of the Operation has become a controversial and highly divisive annual event in the Balkans. While Croats celebrate it as Victory Day, the day when then their "Homeland War" - the Croatian War of Independence - was won and their quest for full sovereignty and independence finally realised, Serbs regard it as a moment for national mourning, an occasion when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homelands. More generally, the operation still raises important questions about how countries use military force to retake secessionist territories. So, how should we regard Operation Storm?
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Operation Storm, known as "Oluja" in Croatian, was a decisive moment in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. It marked the moment when an attempt by ethnic Serbs in Croatia to breakaway and form their own separate state as a prelude to union with Serbia was defeated. But while the events have since become mired in controversy, and have become an annual point of friction, it's important to set them in their full context. While many Serbs regard Operation Storm as an act of ethnic cleansing, a view now shared by many outside observers, they all too rarely recognise the acts of ethnic cleansing that led to the creation of a Serb breakaway state, the RSK, on Croatian territory. Meanwhile, in their annual celebrations marking the defeat of the Serbian Krajina's attempted secession, Croatia fails to acknowledge how Operation Storm saw the permanent forcible displacement of around a quarter of a million ethnic Serbs.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction and Titles
0:36 Secession and the Use of Force
1:47 Geography and Demographics of Croatia
2:17 Croatia in Yugoslavia and the Start of Fighting
3:54 Croatian Independence and the Republic of Serbian Krajina
5:22 The Homeland War and Operation Storm "Oluja"
7:54 Court Cases for Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in Croatia
10:35 The Republic of Serbian Krajina and Operation Storm
RELATED PLAYLISTS
South East Europe and the Balkans • SOUTH EAST EUROPE
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FURTHER READING & USEFUL SOURCES
Human Right Watch Report 1996 www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Croa...
Gotovina Indictment ICTY www.icty.org/x/cases/gotovina...
UN Secretary-General’s Report (August 1995) documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/U...
Milan Martic Judgement
www.icty.org/x/cases/martic/t...
Croatia vs Serbia International Court of Justice www.icj-cij.org/en/case/118
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Kosovo: The Path to Contested Statehood in the Balkans amzn.to/35jiBN2
The Foreign Policy of Counter-Secession amzn.to/2Qinm5t
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KEYWORDS
#Croatia #Serbia #OperationStorm
#InternationalRelations #Secession #Statehood
#Independence #InternationalLaw #InternationalHistory
#Balkans #Krajina #RSK #Oluja
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[@JamesKerLindsay]

5 August - celebrated as "Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day" in Croatia - has become an increasingly divisive moment in the Balkans. But how should we really view the celebrations/commemorations? Is there any hope that Serbia and Croatia can find common ground in how the date is marked? Or will it become an ever more damaging annual occurrence?

[@kristijanEX]

Great video, but you missed a key detail. Republika Srpska Krajina's president Milan Martic issued an order to evacuate the Croatian Serbs from Croatia to Bosnia & Herzegovina/Serbia. This proves that Croatia had no hand in a major ethnic cleansing operation and all incidents were due to individuals unlike the initial ethnic cleansing of the RSK army in 1991 & 1992.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

Is there any hope that Serbia and Croatia can find common ground ? Yes, when Serbia goes through the catharsis of the 90s and faces aggression against Slovenia, Croatia, BiH and later Kosovo. Which, of course, will not happen, where even 30 years later they deny the genocide in Srebrenica. Can you imagine Germany denying the holocaust of the jews and that there are hundreds of murals of Hitler in the cities ? So...yea.

[@astrolonim2032]

I think both sides have a tendency to celebrate their “national heroes” who cemented their nations and ignore those people’s genocide-adjacent actions (much like japan or turkey). Doesn’t seem like a great recipe for future common ground. Great video as always, sound sounds ok by the way :)

[@bilic8094]

I see no hope at all the two peoples will always have there differences and not just for this it goes back to 1941 for many.

[@freeaigle7548]

Est-ce que tu peux nous faire une vidéo sur les fractions et ethnique algérienne comme kabyle, chaoui, targui, Mzab ...etc tu peux écouter l’historien Bernard Lugan l africaniste spécialiste de l’Afrique nord. La Kabylie a sa culture et sa langue propre a elle, on ne peut pas vivre avec des êtres différents de nous. S’il vous plait fait nous une sur la Kabylie et le sahel.

[@teokastelan2930]

If it wasn’t the embargo on the weapons on Croatia, the war could be shorter.

[@damonmelendez856]

Croats and BiH armies were 20km from Banjaluka in 1995; they were on the verge of expelling Serbs from all of western BiH. They were ordered by the USA to bring the operation to a halt

[@teokastelan2930]

@@damonmelendez856 Yes they were ! Ratko Mladic couldn’t believe that the Croatian Army is that close. So they switch of the power grid in whole Banjaluka ! The scouts were practically in the city. Ah bloody war…

[@johnmcgovern5372]

I was there, it didn't matter. we were getting Western arms through Hungary very quickly. My unit 108 HVO were getting FALS and G3's and a ton of 7.62 Nato ammunition through that route. The idea that there was an embargo wasn't an issue on the ground

[@teokastelan2930]

@@johnmcgovern5372 I know that. But I think in the very beginning it would make the difference. That’s my opinion…

[@johnmcgovern5372]

@@teokastelan2930 In terms of small arms it was never a problem. There was always more rifles than people to give them to however artillery and tanks were a different story that never really got solved during the war. We often were facing artillery and tanks with just RPGs and Mortars so in that sense it was an issue.

[@atisalvaro]

Was SAO Krajina legal? It was proclaimed in 1990, on an arbitrary territory, with a 52% Serb majority, out of any legal basis within Yugoslavia. An ethnic cleansing followed, mostly towards Croats, but as well towards the others, except for a few Slovakians and Russins in the Danube area.

[@r.j.lombardi111]

Well I know that Germans and Hungarians got into trouble too

[@cv990a4]

One key issue about "ethnic cleansing" in Operation Storm is whether the Serb population was ejected from their homes by the Croats or whether the Serbs left of their own accord. My understanding is that it's more the latter than the former, that when the Serb resistance collapsed, Serb commanders told Serb civilians to flee and most Serbs left Krajina in advance of Croats actually getting to their dwellings. One could easily say that Serbs were afraid of reprisals given what Serbs had done to Croats earlier in the war - certainly that was a reasonable fear. So one could say that it's a distinction without a practical difference. But actually, whether it was ethnic cleansing does hinge on whether Serbs fled pre-emptively, or whether they did it because Croats were actually physically ejecting them from their homes. For an example of ethnic cleansing, consider Serbia's actions in Kosovo in 1998/1999 when it made an explicit attempt to drive as many Albanians out of Kosovo as they could, in some cases actually marching women and children to the Albanian frontier to ensure they left Kosovo.

[@atisalvaro]

@@cv990a4 The leadership of the illegal Serb Krajina Republic organized exercises of civilian abandonement kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4rNmWaXdtuWsMU. They publicly invited their population to go away from its territory on August 4th. 1991.. Savo Štrbac admited the reasin of THEIR decision shortly afterwards: "It was decided to opt for an exodous, in order to avoid a great massacre that IS going to happen, in order to save a biological mass for something I hope will occur in the future." kzbin.info/www/bejne/navTlH2Aj7hjia8

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@cv990a4 The key issue is Croats are hypocrites as they turn around and apply the same logic to their people in Central Bosnia and northern Herzegovina, who they claim were evicted forcibly by the Bosnian Army, when many of the same conditions apply, such as leaving in advance of the Bosnian Army, meaning we are still a vast ocean away from arguing on principles that apply universally as opposed to self-interested concern about "truth" when it absolves you but not when it can be used against somebody else.

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@cv990a4 Croats do not object to the legality of Krajina because they accept universal international law and ethics, they object to it because they were the ones persecuted. Everything Serbia has done in Croatia, Croatia has done in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the exception their victims resisted and contained the aggression, which did not happen in Croatia, Kosovo or in Serb-occupied eastern/northern Bosnia.

[@ggeronimo4412]

Operation Storm happend at end of war. In 3 days serb civilian population had lived through things that croatian civilians were going through for 4years. You didnt mention the most important thing: plan Z4 and several other plans of Tuđman/UN that were supposed to end war peacefully. But serbs didnt accept any of them. Z4 plan was right before operation storm, Z4 would give RSK:1) greater autonomy inside Croatia. 2)Allow them to use Serbian language, have serbian in schools, have cyrillic alphabeth everywhere in that province. This plan was accepted by croatian parlament and president. But it wasnt accepted by Serbs. After this the West AND Russia gave Croatian leaders a green light to launch the operation. I see this as Serbian politics fault. And you didnt mention that "western slavonia" was peacefully given back to Croatia after the operation. And no Serb was forced to leave. Same could have happend with RSK only if Serbian politicans were smarter. After the operation storm serbian presidend milosevic laughed at serbian civilians who escaped and said "you ran away like rabbits". His stupid ideas also led to NATO bombings in 1999

[@ggeronimo4412]

Also you didnt say that a large amount of "civilian" men population of serbs had weapons brought to them from Serbia by JNA while Croatian "military" had nothing till year 1994

[@tanja-k]

We are so lucky to have you explaining this for everyone. Thank you for being there in person and providing this eyewitness account 🙂.

[@vherox3826]

@@tanja-k there are literal documents proving all of this online along with pictures and statements lmao

[@perperius4714]

Croats didn't accepted Plan Z4 and even if Serbs signed, Croatians def. wouldn't.

[@ggeronimo4412]

@@perperius4714 Yes they did. Tuđman did

[@DD-qw4fz]

The fact Gotovina and the other Generals were dragged around in he Hauge over a couple of Artillery shells landing on Knin (all targeting actual military instalations) with arbitrary never before used strict guidelines on artillery fire to the point of apsurd , really shows how little evidence there was about all the nonsense the prosecution tried to cobble up. Meanwhile Croat towns through the whole war were being fired upon for simple "fun" or actual terror against civilians, most of the time this fire came from serb held parts of Croatia and the ICTY never made a fuss about it as was with Knin. Perhaps the worst case was with Vukovar in Croatia and Sarajevo in Bosnia. Serbs also used cluster rockets against Zagreb when OP Storm and OP Flash started, actual terror attacks.

[@nekilik921]

@@bilic8094 Iz koje si ti klinike izasao, ajde drzi se RTS-a

[@igorsvacic217]

More shells fell on Vukovar HOSPITAL in one day than on entire RSK during same time.

[@mariocavlovicak3220]

Knin was in the beginning the capital city of Croatia. During the Turkish occupation of Croatia Krajina Capital of Croatia is Zagreb

[@damirglavas7940]

@@bilic8094 kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6aUopevpK-Jb8k

[@bilic8094]

@@damirglavas7940 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqLbmWWJmt-jgJY

[@atisalvaro]

Serbs were not "forced out from Croatia" at all. Its military and political leadership had organized civilians pull out exercises prior to the Action Storm, and have ordered its population to leave. It's quite different from forcing someone out. They counted on thus provoking a counterattack by Serbia, that did not occur. Non legal Krajina was formed by a popular will of rebbeling Serbs. In a fake referendum of April 1991., similar to actual referendums in Donbas, they illegally seceded from Croatia.

[@violetlatner6366]

Popular will is a mandate for secession, in relation to the rights of peoples to self-determination.

[@TGSSMC]

​@@violetlatner6366might be, what if by popular will Spanish speaking people of Miami decide to break away from Florida and USA, with military assistance from Spain, then exile all other people from there by military force or kill them. What would happen then? Would it be alright cause of their right to self-determination.

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

Apply this logic to Croat population of Herzegovina and Central Bosnia, then we are talking serious business about winding back some of the atrocious war propaganda that is now being used to justify interference in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatian government believes Bosnians expelled Croats because of a flight but Croats did not expel Serbs in spite of a flight. You have taken lessons from the Serbs in lying, perhaps now you have even excelled.

[@atisalvaro]

@@hasibhakanovic6682 Moslems have lost ground in eastern Bosnia, and settled those people in central Bosnia, in order to make a Moslem majority there. They surrounded central Bosnian Croats, in a siege, with 3:1 forces, aiming at destroying them. No Croatian authority has ever ordered a departure of Croatian population from central Bosnia, opposite to the exercised plans od evacuation of Krajina, that was ordered by Krajina on 4th. of August 1991. Moreover Croatian authorities called Serbs not to leave. If Sarajevo signed Vance-Owen agreement why it did not abide to it?

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@atisalvaro This is a nice conspiracy theory, but I thought Croats were about to be subjugated to Islam, and the Muslims wanted to impose Sharia law?

[@TheVatrogasacMirko]

So what you are telling is if Ukraine wins the war they shouldn't celebrate because it offends russians? same scenario going on here. People responsible for crimes during operation Storm were brought to trials and are in much much smaller numbers then crimes committed by serbs. Serbs were oferred Z4 plan of peaceful reintegration with certain dose of autonomy of the regions and they methodically refused it several times. Operation was only option left to end endless bombings on civilian targets across the country.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. But you are conflating two very different situations. The cases would be considered very different by international law and international politics. It is important to be absolutely precise when dealing with legal issues. At the start of the conflict in Yugoslavia, Croatia was still a part of the Federation. In this sense, Yugoslavia’s actions to prevent it seceding could be seen as equivalent to Ukraine actions to prevent Donbas secession. (Although this is not really the case as Donbas is really a Russian war of conquest.) Indeed, a full-scale JNA war against Croatia would have been justified according to the Ukraine logic. And whether or not the Serbs were offered something that they rejected, that doesn’t change the fact that there was clearly ethnic cleansing in Croatia. Now you may feel that WS justified. I accept that many do. But it doesn’t change the reality if what happened. And the situation is very different from Ukraine.

[@TheVatrogasacMirko]

@@JamesKerLindsay And if civilian ran by themselves without being expelled how is that ethnic cleansing?

[@TheVatrogasacMirko]

@@JamesKerLindsay /watch?v=LvJ6jY5GALo took me 30 sec to find videos of drills of "evacuation" of serb civilians before Storm. They seem to be forced by military and none of the civilian seem they are there by their own will. So if anyone should be charged for ethnic cleansing of civilians from Croatia, should be serbian military

[@doooomiable]

@@JamesKerLindsay You hardly understand the situation because you have not lived here. The Serbs were creating Greater Serbia and it became part of their plan from the 1980s after the death of Tito. They held all the leading positions in the army, the police, the judiciary, and up to 80% of them in Croatia. All the barracks were under their control and ethnic cleansing began in all parts of Croatia. At the end, you have the census of Yugoslavia in 1991, so look for yourself that only 52% of Serbs lived in Krajina, while the rest of the non-Serb population was killed, masked and expelled in 1991. Look at how the ethnic map looked in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991 before the war, and look at what the ethnically cleansed Republika Srpska looks like now. The Serbs were not ethnically cleaned, but fled because they knew they had committed crimes at the invitation of their government. Similar migrations of Serbs took place in 1991 and before the start of the war, many of them remained in Croatia and became part of the Croatian army and defended Croatia against rebelling Serbs. The fact that they attacked Slovenia (10 day war), Croatia, BIH and later Kosovo tells you enough about the war itself. According to them, they are always the victims, and everyone else is the culprit...

[@JeanLucCaptain]

You seemed to have missed that Ukraine didn’t exactly start in a vacuum with Significant EGGING ON from NATO who have always seen Russia as a convenient scapegoat to distract people with.@@JamesKerLindsay

[@Asamations]

Love the footage you provided James. You're definitely getting better in terms of video making. Sorry I don't really know much about the Balkans so can't really comment on the information's accuracy. But knowing you and your background. (From what I've read) I am sure you know what you're talking about. Btw did you see 2 days ago border clashes occured between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia has asked Russia to deploy troops to its border with Azerbaijan to keep the peace. Hopefully the ceasefire holds. Anyways keep up the good work!

[@josipivanic6755]

it si southeast Europe and not balkans

[@AP-qs2zf]

@@KGG4 South east Europe

[@invictusrei]

No one will deny us of Oluja '95! 🇭🇷

[@lacman6159]

Alr fascist

[@romeolajh1602]

@@lacman6159 traktorista 95

[@invictusrei]

@@lacman6159 yes, we are immediately fascist. Uneducated poor man.

[@lacman6159]

@@invictusrei Hitlers puppet

[@cte4dota]

@@invictusrei Respect history you are.

[@markbosnjak50]

Key facts are: Over 16,000 croatians and its peaceful minorities died in defense of Croatia's independence, versus 6000 serbian deaths. Serbs ethnically cleaned over 300,000 croats from their occupied territory, and destoyed Vukovar, bombed Dubrovnik, totally demolished over 380 churches and religious buildings. The Serbs rejected all international peace plans, and rejected the famous Z4 plan, which Croatia accepted, and would of assured high automomy for the Serbian ethnically clensed Krajina. Operation Storm was an internationally approved operation to re-integrate the country. Days before Operation Storm, the Serb leadership told the serb population of about 100,000 to flee, dispite Croatian governments requests and assurances for Serbs to stay. The facts show the serbs only have themselves to blame.

[@daniel72122]

The facts are purposefully ignored. When the ICTY court makes a legal judgement proving Operation was not ethnic cleansing but a legitimate military operation and the facts are still denied, nothing you can do. Who needs laws when you can just deny them.

[@violetlatner6366]

You are obscuring some of the key facts. In the last round of talks that involved the Z4 plan being brought up, RSK was more willing to negotiate with it than in the past, which Croatia responded to by making further demands, namely the immediate dissolution of Serb authorities and their replacement with a Croat civil administration. This resulted in the end of the last chance at peace before Operation Storm, not Serb intransigence.

[@jakovvodanovic9165]

ICTY ruled Storm was not an act of ethnic cleansing. Crimes were commited against Serbs, but they were not part of the leadership plan. Also, around 133000 Serbs returned to their homes after the war and are now living in Croatia with full parliamentary representation. EDIT: I wrongly calculated the number of Serbs that returned.

[@JohnJhones]

133 000 Serbs returned to Croatia according to official Serbian People's Council reports from 2015.

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

How many Bosniaks return to Prozor? 😁😁

[@davemacdonald4892]

Numbers are inflated, more might have returned but villages were destroyed and are nothing more than ghost towns, after living peaceful lives for many generations. Very sad.

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@davemacdonald4892 "Peaceful lives"? World War 1, 2 and of course the 90s. There was not a house in Serb territories in Croatia which did not give a male to these wars.

[@milanlabus1582]

a few too many peoples houses were burned down for it to not be ethnic cleansing

[@northernstar4811]

I think its also important to state the goals of the Serbian minority that lived in Croatia. The radical Serbs who led the Serbs in Croatia wanted a "Greater Serbia" and did not want to live in Croatia at all or be ruled by the Croats. They completely rejected the Z-4 Plan which was supported by the Americans & also the Russians as a way to end the conflict. Milan Martic was the Serbain "Sheriff" in Croatia, a man described as useless by British politician Lord Owen. Martic actually said the Serbs did not want to live in Croatia under any circumstances. Martic also fired a surface to surface rocket at the Croatian capital of Zagreb in 1995 and he admitted this fact on T.V. He got a 35 years jail term for war crimes at the Hague court. So with this type of war criminal Serbian leader any kind of deal or normality was impossible.

[@generalposlijebitke6688]

All in all, situation in so called "Serbian Kraina" from the very first day was builded that "Eather we will win and live in Grater Serbia, or we will all flee to Serbia." Even the saying something in that territory that will include living in Croatia as authonomy is considered like treason. You could be killed. I mean really, killed... Veljko Đakula for example was kidnaped and tortured just because he make some treade deals with Croats... Funny is that the serbian polititians openly say that... That is why they even dont want to look Z4 plan... That thing was unimaginable... Nothing except indipendence... Indipendence or we will all flee to Serbia... And they really flee, days before Croats enter so called Krajina... They practice fleeing for months...

[@Mike8827]

Well, as usually there’s the other side of the medal which is called „Greater Croatia“, which clearly had as its ultimate goal the regain of the territory of the „Independent state of Croatia“ , this time really independent , as is visible from Croatian efforts in Bosnia and the attempted creation of the Croatian republic of Herzeg-Bosna. I don’t blame any side , but if irredentist nationalism on both sides is thriving , coexistence is usually not an option .

[@generalposlijebitke6688]

@@Mike8827 Tudjman wanted to do something like Banovina Hrvatska, not Greater Croatia and we can only assume that. If he wanted Independent State of Croatia in borders from WW2, he would not be in Bosnia alliied with Serbs, instead with Muslims. They would not kill Blaž Kraljević who was exactly for that what you talk about... You had two parties in Bosnia, one for Serb and Croat alliance of Šušak, and other Muslim Croat allaince of Blaž Kraljević. Did you knew at all that Serbs and Croats were allies in Bosnia most of the war? But, back to content, while there are lots of videos, even from Serbian current President where he clearly say to Croat Serbs that they will live in Greater Serbia, that parts of Croatia with Serbs will never ever be again in Croatia, can you please show me one statement where any of Croat politicans ever said Greater Croatia please... Ever! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWenimd7qNCjbpo 4:12

[@Mike8827]

@@generalposlijebitke6688 my current President ? That would be Frau Merkel , but doesn’t matter now . anyway , the ICTY for former Yugoslavia clearly stated that Tudjman had the intent to join Croat areas in BiH to increase the territory of the Croatian state , which ultimately might have left BiH unable to exist and split between Serbia and Croatia . The territorial goals might have gone no further than that , simply for the reason that the bulk of the Yugoslavian military was under Serbian control at that time . But the intent was the same . The Croatians did not want to live under Serbian control , nor did they want the current federation with the Bosniaks.

[@northernstar4811]

@@Mike8827 There is no such thing as "Greater Croatia" only "historic Croatia" which means the old border on the Drina River. This old border was the border between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox church ( see a map online of the Great Schism from 1054 AD. ). It also was the old Roman border between the Western Roman Empire & Eastern Roman Empire. The Ottoman Turkish invasion of Europe changed everything. Greater Croatia as you call it would mean part of Serbia or Montenegro that traditionally was never part of Croatia. Croatia has never wanted that, just its old lands back. Franjo Tudjman for his part wanted only the "Banovina of Croatia" eastern borders back but only if he could get them legally in the case of a total break up of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Most foreigners are cluless about all this.

[@lilynola6341]

Actually, you are not completely right. When the Croatians regained the control of the territory, occupied by the joined military actions of the Jugoslav Army and Serbian Chetniks, the Croatian Government have asked the Serbian civilians to stay (inspite previously the Serbians ethnically cleansing Croatians from the same land). But the Serbian military government issued a decree asking all the Serbs to withdraw from Croatia. That decree was signed by the Serbian commander Milan Martic. First conflict was in Slovenia, the Yugoslav Army attacked Slovenia (10 days war). Croatia (Croatian railways) blocked military transport over its territory from Serbia to Slovenia, and thus that war was short.

[@northernstar4811]

@@milosperic3117 Perhaps they should not have listened to Slobodan Milosevic and his "Greater Serbia" plans in 1991. It was a bit of a disaster.

[@northernstar4811]

@@miloskovacevic8912 There are plenty of videos on You Tube showing what the Serbs were doing in Croatia in 1991. Had the majority of Serbs in Croatia not listened to Milosevic and not taken up arms against Croatia they would be in a better position today.

[@lilynola6341]

​@@miloskovacevic8912 , Croatian soldiers never went to another country to kill nor steal. The Serbian army was active last time in the 1990s in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in killing and destroying other nations, so the Serbs can claim the land as their own. This is how Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska) was created in Bosnia in the 1990s. Some Croatian villigers were killed in Serbia (part of that territory used to belong to Croatia historicly), even there was never any fighting there before the NATO attacked Serbia 1999 in order to imobilise the Serbian military. The NATO intervention has ended all Serbian wars of occupation of the neighbouring nations territories. Manipulations and lies, that how the Serbs steal what does not belong to them. A boy who sat next to me in school was killed by the Serbs and many of my friends. There is no a single Croatian minister in Serbian Parliament, that would represent Croatian minority who live in Serbia.

[@497novakl]

@@lilynola6341 such bullshit. Explain why serbs would invade that wasn't their own when there was a significant serb population in every one of those states and they held historical claims to those areas. And nice of you to brush off the war crimes committed by the Croats, bosniaks, and Albanians given that they committed violence against the serb populations, many of whom didn't even fight. Лажеш као увек а ујо.

[@joeychestnut2437]

@@497novakl historical claims? They have no historical claims in Croatia or in BiH. Historical claims - Hrvatski Zemun, Vojvodina. Now jump on a 🚜 my Bulgarian/Wallachian - Turko peasant. 🚜🚜🚜🚜🚜🚜🚜🚜 Beep Beep

[@lamisura757]

Dear Mr James, As a Croat, I have to express my disagreement with some of your claims in this video ... without going into your motives and reasons for describing the crucial events in the bloody five-year war very superficially, I have to tell you that you should check the facts a little better before expressing your views. At the end, you explain that the result of Operation Storm was the permanent forced relocation of about a quarter of a million ethnic Serbs who had lived there for centuries... That's not correct! They were not ethnic Serbs who lived there for centuries. Serbs came to Croatia mainly as a result of the Ottomans expansion into the Balkans, but they were never so numerous to form such a majority anywhere that would give them the right to declare some territory as a Serbian land. They would have done it if it had been so! The largest number of Serbs were deliberately settled in Croatia during communist Yugoslavia, as members of the Yugoslav People's Army - JNA, People's Militia and many other regime services, institutions, state companies, etc. which were reserved mainly for Serbs. Thus, they tried systematically increase the Serbian minority so they can claim the same status for them as two "autonomous" provinces in Serbia (Vojvodina and Kosovo). When the Serbian rebellion began in Croatia, an even greater number of Serbs came to Croatia; paramilitary groups, volunteer units - Chetniks, ex JNA officers and agents of the regime in Serbia. All of them grouped in the occupied regions and worked together with local Serbs on the ethnic cleansing of Croats for five long and bloody years. Do you have any idea how the Croats felt then... In the end, if they hadn't arrived to Croatia in '91 on tanks, they wouldn't have left Croatia on tractors in '95! So, it could be said - they just got what they were looking for!

[@hamobu]

This wasn't a case of Croatian Serbs declaring Independence but of Serbia invading Croatia. Serbia tried to sell it as a Croatian civil war to get around international law, but the whole thing was organized and initiated in Serbia.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

Well yea. And the best thing is...they filmed everything themselves, which was later used at the International War Crimes Tribunal. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jquXY6iZeKyopLc

[@petarjovanovic1481]

Sure, why not. You do know that people here have brains?

[@gottmituns813]

@@nemanja162 The Constitution of Yugoslavia guaranteed the right of self-determination of the Republics, 90% of the Croats voted in favor. As of 1991 the Yugoslav army became a purely Serbian army.

[@gottmituns813]

@@nemanja162 And the Croats who lived in the Krajina and were expelled or killed by the Serbs? that is called ethnic cleansing. In 1991 there were 35% Croatians in Krajina, in 1992 there were 5%.

[@daniel72122]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnytl5eNm8yBoKM For real evidence on operation Storm.

[@snokehusk223]

Their families didn't live there for hundreds of years.

[@snokehusk223]

@@Maric54 Serbian

[@zmajooov]

In some parts of Croatia they lived since the Slavs settled the Balkans, in some since 1690, which makes it 300 years in the minimum, so don't lie on facts that are easily verified.

[@snokehusk223]

@@zmajooov Croats were the only ones who settled Balkans. Serbs later became Serbs from a Croat tribe Rascians. So they didn't live in Slavonia, Dalmatia or Bosnia when Crots came because there weren't no Serbs until 18th and 19th century when Habsburgs called them. The reason why i said hundred years because when people see it they mean like thousand years. But it is true that first ones came around 300 years here but not a large number definitely.

[@zmajooov]

@@snokehusk223 stop using heroine, it never works out.

[@snokehusk223]

@@zmajooov hah, I am the follower of Christ so I do not do drugs

[@XMasterWoo]

I think you forgot to mention the fact that the serbian secesion was illegal, while the ceoatian one was fully legalno under the 1974 yugoslav constitution.

[@nashbridges-cu6dy]

If serbs from croatia sign croatian separation then yes, thats how constitution 1974 said. But if they say no then its illegal.

[@antuskantus4928]

Video tries to portray both side as equally brutal, which is REALLY misleading. Operation Storm was completely legitimate and to highest standard of military execution. He says that Croatian military forced out Serbs from their homes despite them leaving before any croatian army unit entered towns or villiges and with evacuation being orderd by Serb president. (he even says how all defense broke down at the begining of shelling). Serbs fled fearing retribution for 4 years of murder and rape. However, couple revenge killings did happen but there is no proof that it was systematically planned. All operations will have few criminals doing bad things, especially huge ones like this one that has quarter of a million personnel mobilizided. Besides ICTY has determened that croatian generals werent responsibile for revenge killings. At the end he mentions negotiations like they didnt happen. Yes they did Serbs rejected Z4 plan that would give them autonomy inside Croatia. So stop with your all sides are bad rhetoric, like those lies will make Croats and Serbs plant flowers together.

[@antuskantus4928]

@@JamesKerLindsay because you pin on Croatian side blame for ethnic cleansing despite International Criminal Courts for former Yugoslavia rulings, despite ICJ negative rule on genocide in operation Storm. The fact that Serbian population left long before they could be expelled or worse. Croatian commenters are right not to accept your version where Croatia is responsible for crime it didn't commit or even at that time could. Why should they when it's not the truth?

[@northernstar4811]

@@JamesKerLindsay You had the ridiculous situation where the Serbs in Croatia in a U.N controlled area were shelling the town of Bihac over the border in Bosnia & Herzegovina a supposed U.N safe zone. The situation was a joke. Serbian "Sheriff" Milan Martic ( he got jailed for 35 yrs for his war crimes) fired a surface to surface rocket at Zagreb in 1995, killing seven people. The rocket was fired from a U.N controlled area. What was the U.N doing, sipping tea?

[@antuskantus4928]

@@JamesKerLindsay I'm familiar with the ruling. ICTY no ethnic cleansing (but you still for some reason accuse Croatia for that) and ICJ no genocide but some crimes (murder, arson, rape) happened. It's naive to think that huge operation will not have some criminal actions. Point is that it wasn't ordered by the command and you present it like there was systematic plan to commit war crimes and you don't have any ruling to back that. So all things considered in the real world it was up to all military standards. I doubt you hold Us drone strike operations or in fact any Nato operation up to the same standard as operation Storm cos it would make all of NATO member states responsible for war crimes.

[@LMisetic]

@@JamesKerLindsay James, again respectfully, you are incorrect: Operation Storm was most certainly not ethnic cleansing, as that term was defined by the Security Council's Commission of Experts in 1994:ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy to remove an ethnic or religious group through means that violate international law (See paragraphs 129 and 130 of this report: undocs.org/S/1994/674). There was never a "policy" to remove the Serb population by means of violations of international law. Never. It was not demonstrated at the ICTY or ICJ. As for the ICj's findings on genocidal acts, you should know that whenever you can prove that three murders took place, you have sufficient "acts" to establish genocide. What matters, however, is the intent, and there clearly was no such intent in Operation Storm. Finally, to the extent that your justification for this claim will be that it is "generally accepted" that Operation Storm was ethnic cleansing, I will apply that same logic and ask you again: it is OK for a serious scholar to conclude that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump based on the fact that it is "generally accepted" by many that it was, without any critical assessment of the beliefs of those people?

[@OkOk1100]

@@LMisetic why does Croatia have one of the highest emigration rates in the EU? the standard of living was much higher in the region during the Yugoslav era.

[@arminxvs3372]

Could you (or have already) make a video to explain when an ethnicity has the right to split and proclame indepency? Serbs in the Balkans always come up with that argument like "why can't Serbs decide their fate but the countries could even Kosovo could"?

[@mikevarga6742]

Because the world does not need follow the American model of diversity..just bc it's America's way, doesn't mean it's the only way..damn so many useful American allies get away with it and much more..let Serbs have their place

[@arminxvs3372]

@@mikevarga6742 What American model exactly?

[@mikevarga6742]

@@arminxvs3372 large corp conglomerates, multi culture ism , etc.. the trans issue tells a big part. A nation must bend over to the whims of a group thst doesn't make up half a percentage of the population..our culture really allows for major deflections from things that really matter.

[@arminxvs3372]

@@mikevarga6742 Sorry but I still lack the connection to the bosnian population haha

[@ukilectric]

No ethnicity/national minority has a right to proclaim independence without a consent from the mother state. The only exception was at the end of colonial era when all the colonies were given opportunity to choose to go independent. Nowdays, national minorities *do* have a right for self-governence which comes exclusively in form of autonomous governance *within* the mother state. The reason why Serbs make this argument is because the law was violated against them and so they seek compensation by having the law now be suspended in favour of their interests. The argument isn't legalistic, it's supposed to be logical, and is entirely based on Wetsern powers' blatant disregard for the international law against Serbia.

[@zvonimirvidovic1714]

Why don't you make documentary video about Vukovar under siege from august till november 1991 and Škabrnja in november the 18th 1991? Maybe you can find answer on your title question there. Greetings from Croatia, independent and free state 🇭🇷

[@zvonimirvidovic1714]

@Anonymous Bosch unfortunately for you, serbian war crimes done in Vukovar and Škabrnja happened in the end of 20th century when mankind used VHS technology so everything was recorded. As for ethnic statistics of Vukovar, it was allways town with Croatian majority which can be seen in any census. For that reasons theese kind of lies you mentioned can never be used as fact, just as another provocation which you so urgently write in any topic concearning Croatia or Croats, because you cannot accept the fact Croatia is independent state.

[@zvonimirvidovic1714]

@Anonymous Bosch your words, just like your name, are fiction. That's main difference between us. You produce lies and repeat it ever since Turks left territory east of river Drina. Unlike you, we have written history and know who our ancestors were, by name, untill 10th century. You only know for yours that they were Ottoman Turks, mostly of lower social status. This is why you have this need to read, write and know anything and any time something happens in Croatia, because you know you are so far away from where we are, and will probably stay there for a long time. Take your passeport if you want to go to the seaside. Cheers!

[@ukilectric]

"Independent state of Croatia" "Croatia, the independent state" Surely a coincidence, right? 🤔

[@zvonimirvidovic1714]

@@ukilectric what's your point?

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

He can make a video on Ahmici 😀

[@Korisniknovi]

Well, Croatia didn't adopt the new constitution in July 1990 but on 22.12.1990. it's even called "the Christmass constitution". And "Krajina" wasn't established in December 1991. but effectively on 17th August 1991. when they blocked roads and train tracks and the Yugoslav (effectively Serb) army intercepted Croatian police helicopters and prevented establishing of law and order.

[@eddybulich3309]

Please - we were stuck in a convoy in searing heat in August 1990 outside of Knin because the Serbs put up road blocks back then. Well before the war hit off. Raskovic was going around the country side stirring up the animosity.

[@damirglavas7940]

@@eddybulich3309 Truth!

[@milanlabus1582]

your "establishing of law and order" gave flashbacks to 1941 I'm not surprised the civilians intercepter them many of those people were holocaust survivors themselves

[@Korisniknovi]

@@milanlabus1582 Nobody gives a fuck about your feelings.

[@e.a.poecrnimacak354]

​​@@milanlabus1582 After the WW2, number of Serbs in Yugoslavia was higher for almost one million, while Croats were the only people of Yugoslavia who suffered a huge lose in their population according to official data of population census before and after the war. Why Serbs don't want the complete investigation of this alleged genocide and exhumation in order to honor their people properly? When the stories about Ovcara in Vukovar started, Croats wanted investigation and exhumation as soon as possible to know what really happened to their people and to burry them properly. So, what's the problem for Serbs about this? Besides, one crime can't justify the other, Croats could easily use Vukovar and Ovcara only to call for revenge and preventive action of killing all Serbs to prevent it happening again. But they won't, no normal person would ever even think of that. It's incredible that someone can even think of justifing one crime with the other. Afterall Croats were not the ones who considerered every single Serb a chetnik during 90s (as a Croat I strongly condem everyone who thinks something like that today), they were not singing songs about slaughtering people of other nation. But Serbs did, every single Croat was ustasa for them and had to be killed. And the action of Yugoslav army was illegal, it was military coup and from that moment every action from Croatian side against the army and officials in Belgrade was legit action.

[@toniceovic8245]

You didnt mentioned very important facts that happened before Operation Storm. Serbs were offered peace agreaments and they overrulled all of them

[@violetlatner6366]

I hope you don't think that justifies the horrible atrocities against their civilians.

[@toniceovic8245]

@@violetlatner6366 Offcourse npr. Nothing can justify crimes. Same as norhing can justify attrocoties against Croats in years before Operation Storm

[@phreak2day]

This was really really really badly prepared... It doesn't amount to more than reading Serbian international propaganda. From a professor I certainly expected more. While the entire conflict might appear complex at first, it's actually quite simple to understand once one digs just a bit deeper. Here's a summary: - Yugoslavia was failing economically, this caused economic tensions which started to cause national tensions and a need for all states included in the federation to exit it and be the creators of their own destinies instead of relying on the will of Serbia. Of course, Serbia didn't like that - Croatia, along with Slovenia, activated their right under the Yugoslavian constitution to secede. Slovenia was successful but Croatia was pressured by other European and World countries to "try and make it work". Croatia (foolheartedly) agreed and activated a moratorium on the decision which lasted for 3 months, which is a very reasonable timeframe. Things didn't improve (which was expected) so Croatia went ahead and seceded - To show what it thought of Croatia's secession, Serbia bombed the capital city of Zagreb. Soon after that Croatia was under full attack from Serbia, either by entering Croatian territory with their weaponry or by usurping armies already stationed in Croatia which were previously part of the Yugoslavian National Army (JNA) - The European and World countries "gifted" Croatia with an arms embargo for their effort of trying to "make it work" while it was under full attack. Croatians basically resorted to "sticks and stones" to defend themselves against attacks with tanks and planes - By any account this is an armed invasion of a sovereign country since (now foreign) weaponry has been imported into the country and used to conquer it. The argument of "it wasn't officially recognized yet by the international community" falls flat since: A) it had the right to secede under the Yugoslavian constitution, B) borders were already in place since Yugoslavia was a federation and not a "single mass of territory", and C) "international recognition" came anyway and still while the war was still underway and before operations Flash and Storm were performed. The only result was that Croatia suffered while the "world leaders" did a "great job" once again... - Serbian slaughter and ethnic cleansing ran rampant even though, I repeat, Croatia was a sovereign nation which, as such, had every right to defend itself - Finally when the arms embargo was lifted and Croatia was able to fend itself properly. And there was no NATO alliance to help, Croatia had to fight for itself - Operation Flash laid the groundwork for Operation Storm, having military actions which were so quick results in lesser lives lost (whether civilian or armed forces) - Before Operation Storm began all areas that would be attacked were warned in advance to prevent loss of civilian life. This is well documented - When Operation Storm began, Serbia organized transport for civilians from the areas affected by the operation. At first to "save them from being slaughtered" (even though that would never happen since no "excessive shelling" occurred anyway nor was anything like that ever planned) but then they decided to spin the whole thing as "forced removal of civilians" even though they were the ones that organized the transportation and moved them to Serbia themselves. This is also very well documented - Serbia did not like the fact that Croatia was so successful so they started talking about "forced deportations" and other nonsense. Since they lost the war they were hoping to not loose "history" and have been trumpeting a so-called "mutual responsibility" ever since. Which is laughably untrue since Serbia entered Croatia's borders, not the other way around. Croatia never entered Serbia's borders, even when searching for Croatians abducted into Serbia during their slaughter on the eastern part of the country. The so-called "criminal enterprise" argument is one such laughable example - Croatia did not evade taking part in the Hague trials, it even insisted on the court for ex-Yugoslavian conflicts to be established since it wanted to prove without a doubt that it was innocent and wrongfully attacked. It also didn't want to (rightfully) execute the Serbian warlords which were slaughtering everyone and everything in Croatian territory but instead insisted on international rule of law. The court ended up being compromised and a complete joke since they couldn't grasp the simple fact that Serbia entered and attacked Croatia within its own borders and that there is no way Croatia could beheld accountable for that. It's like having a bully at school that comes to your home, breaks down your door, starts to brutally hit you, you chase them out and don't take any revenge - and then you are treated as partially accountable for being bullied. Laughable! - Serbians live peacefully in Croatia and even have a parliamentary representative. Croatians do not live as well in Serbia and up until recently didn't even have a representative in the Serbian parliament - The only reason that the commemoration of Operation Storm is "considered divisive" is only because Serbia is butt-hurt for losing a war that THEY STARTED and have been spreading lies ever since. It's only considered "divisive" in Serbia, nowhere else, and since they are a loudmouth everyone seems to be buying into these laughable lies. Operations Storm didn't just bring an end to the war in Croatia but also to the one in Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2 wars concluded with 1 military operation. If that's not worth commemorating then nothing is! And aggressors don't have any say in this! - For true peace to reign between the two countries Serbia needs to admit (mostly to itself) what it had done. Without that we will continue to have such laughable rhetoric about "divisive commemorations" and "both sides are to blame" Conclusion: Croatia had EVERY RIGHT to defend itself and Operations Flash and Storm were COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED by every possible and conceivable metric. And the commemoration is 100% JUSTIFIED and should in fact be commemorated widely in the "international community". It's the least that could be done for all the blood they have on their hands because of their inaction. And to have a safeguard against something like this again occurring in the future. Although, in some ways it already did in Ukraine. You're welcome, professor. I expect you to do better next time. Or better yet: make a follow-up which properly addresses the events. The lies need to stop! We hear the rattling of guns becoming louder every day due to the ineptitude of the "international community" which approved the creation of Republika Srpska, an "autonomous country" WITHIN A COUNTRY in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia and Bosnia will be once again left holding the bag for the lies being spread in "informed looks and articles" such as this one. Side note: I'm really glad that the same mistakes are not being repeated in Ukraine like they were in Croatia. I really am. The situation is exactly the same: a foreign nation is taking a country's land by force. But it's sickening to see virtue signaling for Ukraine on one side and then content like this on the other. Every sovereign nation has the right to defend itself. No exceptions. And rest assured that the massacres conducted in Bosnia would have been avoided if Croatia was not under arms embargo, and there would have been a lot less bloodshed in general since the whole conflict would have ended in a matter of days (as was the case in Slovenia) and not 5 years like it ended up being.

[@samonaprid7782]

Explained 👍

[@tombaur8316]

[@user-ur8fb6mt7n]

🙌🏻

[@davemacdonald4892]

My wife’s parents and grand parents are from this region. I visit and stay in a village every year, whats left of it. Close to 500k ethnic Serbs forced to leave the region.My wifes father drove elderly woman to Belgrade on a tractor. Stories of many civilians slaughtered. The once thriving villages and areas where the Serbs had lived for 100s of years are ghost towns. It is staggering how Croatia get away with and think its okay to consider this Storm as a national day to celebrate. Im a NZer.

[@phreak2day]

@@davemacdonald4892 That's very disingenuous. I understand you're taking that stance because of your wife, and I even applaud you for sticking with her, but the content of your reply indicates that you didn't even read what I wrote. Croatia didn't perform ethnic cleansing operations nor did it perform forced removal of the population - that was was all commanded by the Serbian authorities (all of which is very well documented) and now they play the victim. Croatia wanted to leave Yugoslavia peacefully, same as how Czechia and Slovakia separated peacefully. That's why it went along with the whole postponement of the separation to begin with, to avoid armed conflict. Croatia did everything right and by the book. But no, we're all supposed to listen to unfounded claptrap like this. It's a justification for Serbia to enter another sovereign nation's territory with tanks and to "cry foul" for getting its ass kicked for doing so - give me a break! Comments like this are the same copy/paste comments one always reads, and they are nothing more than thinly veiled justification of armed occupation and war. As an adult you should be aware of this. And you should also be aware that there would be no need for Operation Storm if Serbia hadn't invaded Croatia. Therefore, every military operation performed by Croatia was legitimate, including Operation Storm. And no one will pervert history to say otherwise, especially not Serbia whose political leadership still today consists of the same butchers that caused the entire war. 30 years later the same people and the same story! Well it's finally time to quote the great Vojko V: "Ne može!" P.S. In regards to how Serbs live in Croatia nowadays: they live peacefully and even have permanent reserved seats in the Croatian parlament, all the while Croatians in Serbia are little more than a footnote. P.P.S. If you're truly honest about your disgust for human suffering then you would also condemn the Serbian slaughters in Vukovar, Škabrnja, Srebrenica and everywhere else. And just in case you're not aware why Serbia did what it did take a look at "Načertanije", if you're honest about your disgust for human suffering you'll look into it because it's been the main point of Serbian politics ever since it was written. And then you'll understand that Serbia has no one to blame but itself.

[@erikvanderheeg5729]

Oluja '95 - a splendid example of maneuver warfare mainly performed by field artillery and dismounted infantry. Ought to be studied at war academies for years to come.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. Militarily it may have been a textbook operation. However, from a human perspective it had a devastating effect. Communities that has lived in those lands for hundreds of years were forced out. So, yes, it should be studied if war colleges want to teach their aspiring officers how to commit ethnic cleansing!

[@user-nt3uh8ru6s]

@@JamesKerLindsay It was due to Milošević's scare tactics that the serbian population started leaving. Watch any documentary about the Operation Storm, the Croatian soldiers enter villages yelling "we won't harm you, we have food and water". On the other hands, look at the videos of RSK Army entering the villages; drunken yelling, threats, cursing and mocking. You should do a little more research on this topic to see what happened on the day of OS. Cheers.

[@damirglavas7940]

Your comments are misleading and inaccurate 🤔🙄 You persistently defend the theory and ethnic cleansing of Serbs by Croats in Operation STORM, and you don't mention a single second of 5 years before that operation of ethnic cleansing by Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo? Interesting? How much are you paid for that false propaganda from Serbia,profesore? Because you are persistently doing what Serbia has been doing for 20 years ... trying to equalize the blame for its aggression on Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Politics in the five war years of Serbian convicted criminals in The Hague has come to fruition in Operation Storm and no normal person can side with them and defend everything they did during the war operations without compromising themselves and their objectivity and you just keep defending the Serbs and Serbia false propaganda, you are doing it very wholeheartedly as far as I can see. "Being ignorant who beleves and repeat lies or being the expert who,twists the truth... I can't decide,what's worse ?" - Glavaš Damir

[@hrvojestanic1791]

What is your problem?? Did you hear about ICTY??! War is started 1991. with aggresion on Croatia... Serbs loose the War which they started...and we are happy!! No more Sudeten land or Srbska Krajina!

[@ginjordom6065]

@@JamesKerLindsay Communities that have turned against their neighbours and conducted ethnic clensing,they got what they deserved,take no prisoners.

[@guardianofcroatia2620]

Brilliant victory Croatian army 🦾🦾🦾

[@reljabrajovic1754]

Against who? Civilians?

[@flair500]

@@reljabrajovic1754 chetniks

[@reljabrajovic1754]

@@flair500 So its only the Chetniks but when Croat civilians are in danger thez are not all ustashe. Give me a break.

[@anonimusistine7378]

And Croatia lost that war,EU and Nato take everything in that poor country...

[@guardianofcroatia2620]

@@anonimusistine7378 Sweet dreams ...

[@tor1950]

The reason for storm is Bihač enclave if there was no storm the Bihač enclave would have experienced the destiny of Srebrenica

[@zagrepcanin82]

Srbi zohari bi pobili sve

[@nakajaka9200]

not just bihac but whole balkan!

[@AmarEcd1233]

That is simply not true. Bihac defended itself throughout the entirety of the war with no help from the outside. Stop telling lies.

[@outplayed2303]

@@AmarEcd1233 That is completely false, Croatia constantly delivered arms and supplies to Bihać, there are documents available. Go see the letter Dudaković sent to Croatia, begging for help.

[@AP-qs2zf]

@@AmarEcd1233 without croatian army. BIhac would be another srebrenica. Learn to be greatful

[@noel0733]

Croatia did a great job! The Krajina was always Croatian land. Greetings from your old Brother Austria 🇦🇹🇭🇷❤

[@damirxcv8546]

Sorry friend, as a croat i must say, that Krajina was never croatian, let’s be honest. And god forbid new war. We’re still paying back too Americans ( weapons that we purchased 😉). Have a nice day

[@northernstar4811]

@@damirxcv8546 The so called "Krajina" was called the "Croatian Military Frontier" when it was under Austria until 1881 when it was re-attached again with the rest of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.

[@noel0733]

@@damirxcv8546You are not a Croat. A real Croat knows that Krajina (Militärgrenze) always was a part of Croatia-Slavonia which was a part of Austria-Hungary.

[@noel0733]

@@duramajin3118 cry little Serb 😂

[@northernstar4811]

@@lonelyherzegovinawarrior153 If you are Serbian you can look up your old homeland called the " Eyalet of Rumelia". Good old days.

[@psychic_beth]

I recently found this channel and I'm loving it so far. I'm currently studying a master's in economics with a specific interest in international development economics, so a lot of IR issues are very interesting to me as a result. I've been looking for more academic content creators in this field that actually know what they're talking about, since there's so many channels that just spout opinions with not much behind them, in a very "layperson" style, which isn't necessarily bad but there's a lot of bad takes.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thank you so much Bethany! I am so pleased you found the channel and find it useful. Part of the reason I started it was because I remember being in the same position when I was doing my master’s in IR. I was always really interested in case studies and applied ideas. But there wasn’t a lot out there then that provided a crossover. It’s therefore so nice to hear that the videos are appealing to the next generation of students and practitioners!Good luck with the studies! And do let me know if there are any topics you would like to see me cover. I’m always really keen to hear suggestions.

[@psychic_beth]

@@JamesKerLindsay Cheers, thank you! I would love to see a video (or maybe more than one) about some of the UN's organisations (e.g. IMF, UNHCR, World Bank), how they work, and why they are important (especially with the resurgence in isolationist sentiment under Trump during his presidency)

[@JamesKerLindsay]

@@psychic_beth Thanks again Bethany. Great suggestions! A few others have asked me to look at international organisations. Let me see what I can do.

[@mariocavlovicak3220]

This is nothing but a bullshit propaganda it's not true it is a lie made up by Serbia

[@stevie6621]

@@mariocavlovicak3220 What's a lie? "oluja" was a crime of ethnic cleansing plain and simple.

[@mmajst0r]

Thank you for trying to sintetize the events objectively. You didn't take any side, but tried to explain what happened. You just failed to show the role and responsibility of great powers in these conflicts. Now it seems that this is just some balkan thing, but it actually is not...

[@markokrompic]

I Totally agree.

[@geoeconomics5629]

Great powers started this whole mess in Yugoslavia

[@redknight4805]

Only problem with this is is that sometimes not taking any sides is the furthest thing from the truth.

[@geoeconomics5629]

There is no NEUTRAL you are with us or against us

[@redknight4805]

@@geoeconomics5629 Well, I wouldnt go that far. All I am saying is that being neutral and not taking sides is sometimes neither objective nor in the service of truth. For example, if I said that all sides during WW2 commited atrocities and that therefore we shouldnt be taking sides in a war... I bet that from a typical "fence sitter" perspective this would sound like an "objective" and "neutral" argument. From my perspective, it would be neither neutral nor objective.

[@Gold26502]

hello james, very detailed video as always, could you make a video about the “mini schengen” agreement between north macedonia albania and serbia? who will benefit off of this in the long run, is it even a good idea? i’d love to hear your thoughts.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

Idea sponsored by Visegrad Group for a better ( faster ) transfer of their goods from Turkey, Greece to Central, Eastern Europe. It is not that complicated. The information is public.

[@claydee7092]

"Open Balkan"*

[@Gold26502]

@@user-xj3ve7wt8k who said this was complicated? i’m just saying i want his opinion on this topic

[@bilic8094]

@@Gold26502 I agree with you I would like to know the complete details also .

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

@@claydee7092 Mini šengen. "Balkan" is not three countries. Three counties ( Serbia, Albania and Macedonia ) is 20% of the Balkan.

[@vristeciorao]

This video is just top of the ice. You cant explain 5 years war in 12 minutes. A lot of facts are missing.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

You can certainly explain it. But as I say when people make this point, almost every subject I cover could have a whole university module dedicated to it. They are meant as a starting point. Not the last word.

[@vristeciorao]

@@JamesKerLindsay Ok then. because it looks like you are trying to explain, was it ok for allies to carpet bomb whole cities in effort to break 3rd reich.

[@lukarogovic4594]

Looks like James doesnt get the fact that the truth is deep waters

[@moshehaifa]

Another interesting topic. Has there been any legal attempts by Serbs who fled to get their properties back?

[@faetont]

They didn't lose their property rights. If I recall correctly, Croatian authorities after operation Storm passed a law which took off your ownership rights if you were not present for more than x days at your property, but it was later recalled under pressure from international community. Some Serbs came back to Krajina, some sold their properties, some exchanged it with Croats from Bosnia, and so on.

[@moshehaifa]

@@faetont Thank you, I didn't know that.

[@thegamersway1835]

As in my family's case part of their village was set on fire and in the other part Croats moved in.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thank Brendan. Great question. This is always an issue in such cases. As Vinko notes, it was a complex situation. Here's an interesting piece on how many people lost our because they were living in social housing, and so weren't considered to have private property rights. iwpr.net/global-voices/croatian-serbs-await-return-lost-homes Also, I think that in many cases the property was so badly destroyed that people simply chose not to return. Many just decided to make a new life wherever they ended up - for better or for worse.

[@DreamBigSwimStrong]

Not only that, Croatian Govt is passing a law right now which will allow families of Serb civilian casulties that didn't take part in the war to get financial compensation. Sadly the author of the video is very ignorant on the topic so please take the information in the video with a grain of salt as it is filled with many large scale innacuracies.

[@miltonmiles6324]

Thank you James. This situation Croatia finds itself in, to me, is in direct contrast to Bosnia’s situation. While the Croats were victorious against the Serbs, the Bosnians and their allies the Bosnian Croats weren’t able to completely win over the Bosnian Serbs, resulting in the weird federation that is Bosnia today, with weird arbitrary internal borders achieved through ethnic cleansing. I imagine that if Croatia wasn’t strong enough, they’d find themselves in a similar predicament as Bosnia is in today.

[@nepoznatinetko7210]

Well, judging by what James said in the video, we in Croatia were wrong to reclaim our country and were better to end up like Bosnia - fully unfunctional and with 500 000 radical Serbs blocking any progress and holding rampant hate towards us.

[@bilic8094]

@@petarjovanovic1481 my brother went to montenegro and crossed in croatia for one day and they smashed his car in because it had belgrade plates but the funny thing was it wasn't even his car it was a rental that he picked up at the airport.

[@Max-cr8wp]

@Black Siberian Army That’s major cap since NATO bombed Republika Srpska positions and by journalists words, weapons Croatia used were from East Germany given to them by NATO and EU

[@joekerr9197]

Actually Croatian army crossed over in Bosnia-Herzegovina where they continued in the cooperation with the Bosnian forces (Croats and Bosniaks) and continued on in the "Operation Maestral" which was ultimately stopped on the intervention of the US and NATO. That military operation was going so well that it would almost certainly crush the Serbian resistance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Instead the US and NATO stopped it, creating the current status quo resulting in the current shitshow that is modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina.

[@tomislavb5760]

@@Max-cr8wp Wrong Nato attacked Udbina Air base earlier in 1995 but most of that damage was repaired and Udbina was fully operational again by August 1995. The only other NATO attack was on a surface to air radar system which was targeting/tracking NATO aircraft sometime in late July. Oluja (Storm) was a well organised and successful military operation conducted over 3 days. Sucked that it had to happen but for Croatia it was necessary.

[@twisted_tea]

if my grandfather moved into YOUR house lived there had a family and then i claimed your house as mine would you kick me out?

[@TheVatrogasacMirko]

ofc he will not answer that haha

[@youwayo]

SQUATTERS’S RIGHTS

[@twisted_tea]

@@youwayo that's a US law

[@joeblack5393]

Im just surprised that you failed to mention the trading that was going on in regards to Bosnia - brokered both by US and UK+France. The Serb self-proclaimed states failed and were defeated because they refused to agree to what Milsevic was telling them (and then as a consequence he denied them any help) and Croatia received card blanche to reintegrate these regions, in exchange for forcing Croatians in Bosnia to integrate with Muslim majority (which was led to their present day status of pretty much being irrelevant and heading toward disappearing). Essentially Croatia was just a brief side show in what would develop later in Bosnia.

[@joeblack5393]

@@markojuric4954 Huh? What are you even talking about?

[@markojuric4954]

@@joeblack5393 Self-proclaimed state by Bosnian Serbs was an answer to the overvoting by Muslims and Croats at the referendum at the beginning of the year 1992. Is that okay for you?

[@joeblack5393]

@@markojuric4954 Yes, i am aware of the history.

[@user-pn7jz9vr2z]

@@joeblack5393 and, tell me, why should Serbs not have a right now to hold a referendum in RS

[@joeblack5393]

@@user-pn7jz9vr2z Referendum is a basic democratic right, so i cant see any argument why they shouldnt have a right to referendum.

[@bv9078]

thanks for this interesting video, although you missed one important fact called Plan Z4. Take a deep dive into this and you should see some more background because this is the backbone of the events happening in '95.

[@NunaNaman]

Hi, how many years of research you did before publish this video?

[@ivantulumovic861]

Nobody died so I don't understand why is that a problem? That was a very professional act compared to Vukovar

[@reljabrajovic1754]

Yeah... Nobody died...

[@Josip9888]

Long story in short is what happend: they came with tanks, went back in tractors 🚜

[@Piciji_Grip]

@@OkOk1100 I don't know wheather you are from Balkans or outside reader, but professor failed to mention massacres of Vukovar in Croatia (800 civillians) and Srebrenica in Bosnia (8000 civillians!) commited by Serb forces. Also, almost every city and village they occupied there were incidents and massacres commited. I am aware of incidents commited by Croats and Bosniaks, but it really is uncomparable to what Serbs did to us, and there were around 300 Croat soldiers arrested after operation Storm, so Croat soldiers were acountable for what they did. And also around 200,000 Croats and non-Serbs were expelled from Serbian Krajina. And you have to understand RSK administration were scaring their population with some heavy propaganda such as "Ustashas are coming to do another genocide, remember what happened in ww2" so when Croatians entered Krajina territory, Serb population started fleeing in a hurry and in chaos. Tuđman himself held a speech before and after Operation Storm calling for Serb population to stay in their homes and coorporate with Croatian goverment. Both Tuđman and general Ante Gotovina called for return of Serb population to Croatia but only very few did return.

[@OkOk1100]

@@Piciji_Grip "And you have to understand RSK administration were scaring their population with some heavy propaganda such as "Ustashas are coming to do another genocide, remember what happened in ww2" so when Croatians entered Krajina territory, Serb population started fleeing in a hurry and in chaos." How is that

[@OkOk1100]

@@JamesKerLindsay Also in 1991, Croatia and Tudjman changed the law so that Serbs became 2nd class citizens.

[@thejosh3855]

@@OkOk1100 no, they didn't

[@vladimirbotic2603]

@@Piciji_Grip retardi to nikad neće priznati oni za dva ubijena civila naprave propagandu ko da je ubijeno 200 a šta su sotone napravile to je njima normalno i onda se ćude odmazdi Hrvata i Bošnjaka jedina nacija koju ni jedna susjedna država ne podnosi su Srbi

[@newone1634]

The sound isn't loud enough please.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks so much. I had someone else say this (but said it got louder later). But others say that it is fine. Let me look into it. I’m not sure what might have happened.

[@stupidwalrus155]

Great video, though the background music is a bit distracting

[@oliverbenis]

The Serbs were told to stay in their homes during Operation Storm but were ordered to leave by their own government. You failed to mention this key point in your talk.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. But it is important to understand the psychology, especially in such situations. Would Croats have stayed put in the face of an advancing Serbia army?

[@oliverbenis]

Let's not forget that the Serbian civilians that remained after Operation Flash were told to go back to their homes once the Croatian Army had liberated Western Slavonia. If the civilians had remained in their homes during Operation Storm then a lot more of them would have stayed instead they left with the retreating army.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

@@oliverbenis Again, if you were in that situation, and knowing how brutal the war had been up until that point (on both sides), would you have just stayed in your home? I don’t think anyone on their right mind would have done so - no matter how many promises were made by the advancing forces.

[@oliverbenis]

There were negotiations before the commencement of Operation Storm where the rebel Serb were told to disarm and that their rights would be respected. They rejected the proposal and then Operation Storm was launched. It is also important to note the the Bihac pocket was close to falling and that Storm prevented this. Many Bosnak civilians were also liberated after the siege of Bihac was lifted.

[@Silent33091]

​@@oliverbenis "the rebel Serb were told to disarm and that their rights would be respected." Not their rights for self determination i guess.

[@anirudhparthasarathy3387]

I love the new graphics on your videos. It gives a much larger picture as to all the events during the 90s whereas as a reader based outside, most of the news is focused on Milošević and Serbian transgressions.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thank you so much. Fortunately, there was some really great footage readily available for this video. And I really enjoyed editing it in. I think it does make a big difference. Sadly, I won’t be able to do this on every video. Sometimes there just isn’t footage available. At other times it is just too expensive to obtain. But I will try to do it more. And your support helps a lot! :-) Have a great weekend!

[@smuggler4982]

Milosevic and Serbs? after 30y same lies,same story,same CNN globalists BS...First Operation Storm was made by US army-retired military generals and former US secret service officers, Blackwater and others ... because the US government allegedly did not dare to interfere in the war, Croats were only infantry, and Serbs in Krajina were betrayed by the political leadership of Serbia, under threat from the West, by bombing..What happened in the end in the 99th.-because of innocent Albanians 😂 That is the whole story about which some nations, created in 1995 as a former communist project, today celebrate and make hymns about it ...😁👏🏻🤫 but situation in the world is changing,,soon there will be time for pay back...we will liberate the occupied Serbian territories, because there will be no globalist dads to keep their poodles, the same Hitler poodles from ww2, they will not be left stone on stone, I guarantee you that ...☦️🇷🇸💂🏻‍♂️💂🏻‍♂️💂🏻‍♂️🏴‍☠️

[@JamesKerLindsay]

@@smuggler4982 A lot of random words from someone I guessing wasn’t even born at the time. People (Serbs) I know and am close to suffered a lot during the Yugoslav wars. Talk of reclaiming lost territory is nonsense. This sort of thinking helped cause the fighting in the 1990s. And no one I know who actually lived through it wants to go back to it!

[@smuggler4982]

James-Im war veteran from kosovo war 99..yes i was to young for croatia,bosnia but i still remeber very well of everything,expecial agresion on yugoslavia and hell we going thru on ground but still menage to hold on...all bcs western lies...so bro dont give lessions pls

[@JamesKerLindsay]

@@smuggler4982 Sorry. Not buying it. ‘Bro’ is certainly not the language I’d expect from a 40-something Serb. :-) (Indeed. The whole tone is wrong. And I say that as someone who knows Serbia extremely well. In all my years spent there, I have never come across someone who uses language like this. If you’re going to pretend to be middle aged Serb try to sound like one!)

[@altinkamberi4395]

Hi James, Do you think Kosovo would win the trial for Genocide and Ethnic cleansing from serbian part. The statstics are about 10,000 civilian casualities and 1.2 milion displaced, however while in Bosna and Croatia local serbs led the actions (although masterminded by Belegrade) in Kosovo the direct Serbian authorities took the matter in hand, which in my opinion could be an advantage to win Kosovo the case. Bosna did quite win the case as Srebrenica was accepted as a genocide but there isn't proof that serbian goverment did that, so Serbia wasn't declared guilty but only local serb commanders (as I mentioned above).

[@nemanja162]

No but the KLA are regarded as a terrorist organisation as per UN resolution 1160 and the Serbian armed forces intervening against them was a legitimate anti terrorist operation.

[@Tony_Soprano41]

Hi profesor. One thing you point out out through whole clip is that Serbs were forced out from their homes. That is simply not true and here is why. In weeks before Storm began, Serbian Krajina leaders and military officials were having drills and tests about quick evacuation in case of an attack from Croatia. They did that because they (Serbs) were feared of retaliation against civilians because they did that to all Croatian population in towns and villages occupied in 1991. So they prepared for this scenario in their minds weeks before Storm started. As I understand that they did that to minimize casaulties, they also had a choice given by Croatian government to stay and to accept peacefully Croatian army and police and with that to accept fully integration into Republic of Croatia. Most of them refused and set to journey BY THEMSELVES with all kinds of vehicles, mostly tracktors. So Serbs choose to flee and to leave the country. Nobody forced them out.

[@nashbridges-cu6dy]

Serbs didn't trust to croats couse of nazzi croatian genocide in ww2 thats the main point of everything.

[@milanlabus1582]

explain why a quarter million people would flee their homes to go sleep on the street and in refugee tents?

[@Tony_Soprano41]

@@milanlabus1582 Fear of retaliation. Serbs were thinking that Croats will do to them same as it was back in 1991 when Serbs commited massacre through whole Croata, from Vukovar all the way down to Dubrovnik.

[@milanlabus1582]

@@Tony_Soprano41 and were they right to think this or not?

[@Tony_Soprano41]

@@milanlabus1582 If you are not wrong about some crime, then you dont have to worry about anything. Many Serbs stayed and nothing happened to them. Most of them went to Serbia, some of them drivven with fear, but many of them with knowing they are war criminals

[@user-qn2yf3ok5f]

there are people going thru documents and archives for years and are not willing to talk about things with certainty and authority, then comes british agent of chaos making 12 minutes of youtube video,what and who gives you authority to talk about things u need to spend years of studying?

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Haha! This has to be one of my favourite comments ever. I am a professor of SE European politics who specialises in conflict. I have literally spent decades studying the Western Balkans - including working on documents and doing interviews with protagonists. I have written extensively on the region. It’s all in my profile. www.lse.ac.uk/LSEE-Research-on-South-Eastern-Europe/People/James-Ker-Lindsay Seriously, if you’re going to write silly little criticisms of people’s apparent lack of qualification to comment on an issue perhaps take a just a moment to look at their profile in future? :-)

[@user-qn2yf3ok5f]

@@JamesKerLindsay u can have degrees up the yin yang,situation in balkans is unresolved ,especially in bosnia,things can go downhill wery fast,we need peacemakers not analysts

[@warlok007]

@@user-qn2yf3ok5f ...pro-serb hegemony biased analyst.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

That sounds very arrogant and high handed and frankly ACADEMIC lie I can see it coming from the lecture pulpit. This isn’t some classroom. Peoples lives are at stake and tensions could boil over at anytime as Ukraine and ISREAL has proven.@@JamesKerLindsay

[@yourdailydoseofcommonsense3988]

Just look the Serbian logic at that time and logic of Great Serbia Serbs came to Knin when they where running away from Turks and welcome d them and then they want independence wtf

[@lukasunjic750]

And they call that land their own 😂

[@theconqueringram5295]

The war left deep scars in the region.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. Indeed. This is why I wanted to make the video. I’ve seen how the discussion over Operation Storm has become more and more polarised with the passing years. And this is coming out clearly in the comments. It would seem that the younger generations of Serbs and Croats - remembering that anyone under 40 probably doesn’t have a clear memory of events - are being brought up with a very particular account of events that sets it in very specific national terms.

[@faetont]

@@JamesKerLindsay I was contemporary of those events, and after 30 years I don’t even bother reading comments from Croatia or Serbia on those events, because those are the same old comments put on repeat button. What you have just said is very true, paradoxically with passage of time the memories of war are now closer than like 20 years ago when everyone was tired of war and war stories.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

@@faetont 30 years is not a lot of time. How can you forget that your whole family was executed in front of the doorstep only because they were Croats ? For no other reason. Yes, it is easy for foreigners to speak about the "current situation" in the Balkans, where the rest of Europe has not had a war on its soil since the time of WW2. Generations and generations of people who lived in peace...but they want to sell something they do not understand.

[@mirkovukovic4156]

@@user-xj3ve7wt8k why are you talking only about serbian crimes, tell something abouth croatian crimes.. in 1991 many serbian people didnt forget about croatian crimes in ww2.. that is problem, you hawe Ante Pavelic on your wall and you are talking how serbian people are horrible.. we are all the same in war, we all make crimes an that is priblem

[@nikator160]

@@mirkovukovic4156 nor did Croats, especially government.. they are still bringing it back all the time

[@ipe7739]

you are not competent to speak about this topic.....you left out a million facts such as the Z4 plan, the Croatian embargo until 1994 and many others.your presentation is superficial.🤦‍♂...in order to draw any conclusions, you need to investigate much deeper...

[@teetman322]

I am not even going to criticize your lack of information, I just invite you to Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia and ask the local people about the war on the war hit areas (you won't find any in Serbia though). Listen to people who were there during the war and their stories and then remake the video.

[@abc-eq9so]

He will find the 200 000 that fled Krajina in Serbia

[@bluesloverdelux5010]

@@abc-eq9so yeah,you fled,because we were "nazis"and you were scared.When your own lies bite you in the ass.

[@teetman322]

@@abc-eq9so They fled Croatia my man. None of the Serbs were invaded in Serbia. Also, they were invited by the president to stay. No troops had the order to chase them. Although there definitively were some rogue soldiers who acted out of revenge and did war crimes - don't know them, but I assume so in the war. On the other hand, the Serbian Chetniks were ordered to kill all children and old people in Split. They massacred villages in Slavonia, which was never in history owned by any Serbian state - neither was any Croatian province owned by the Serbian state. The plans for Greater Serbia are known now. It wasn't hidden. There is no point in defending evil my friend. You don't have to be so defensive, just be humble and stay silent if some ignorant foreigner brings up misinformation. Situation in Krajina was similar as Kosovo, then how can you support that Kosovo is Serbia, but try to nationalize and separate provinces of other countries like self proclaimed Krajina and Republika Srpska. That is called hypocrisy, and invalidates every argument you make, since it isn't constructive and only seeks to gaslight. Kosovo is Serbia. There is no Krajina and there is no Republika Srpska. If we do not agree to the sanctity of territorial integrity, then we will just keep killing each other and if you support that ...

[@abc-eq9so]

@@teetman322 lol greater serbia. I always laugh when i hear that. I guess jasenovac was also a fun fair for refugees

[@teetman322]

@@abc-eq9so Irrelevant to the subject at hand. You are doin a strawman false argument.

[@mocnitikut]

Serbs are trying to make Greater Serbia from 1844. up to now.

[@voiceofreason1829]

Trying... but every year they are only getting smaller

[@mocnitikut]

@@voiceofreason1829 yes but all medias in Croatia becoming their, and they are in every goverment...

[@LUKAZZY]

Tell me where is the grave of Croatian king Zvonimir... There is none..

[@voiceofreason1829]

@@LUKAZZY cry more servant😊 king tomislav is documented in variuos places. I bet you cant find graves of ppl who died before thousand of years ago, especially if they were small rulers, and not some pharaons

[@bilic8094]

@@LUKAZZY That's funny I mean everyone has a grave except the so called croatian kings 😁.

[@bobnonomen9244]

Well, let me educate you James, you who doesnt have a clue what was going on back in the days becouse you were sitting somewhere safe and comfortable. Causes of the break up are very simple, Belgrades hegemonistic style of rule, meaning serbs are superior over all the other nations inside Yugoslawia with most of the money floating to Belgrade. Croatia declared independence out of Yugoslawia. Serbia attacked Croatia with the goal to take over all the land where only one serb lived declaring it as serbian land and yes there was serbs living in Croatia and yes there were serbs fighting for Croatia in that war. You can find it anywhere, any serb in Croatia at that time who didnt take a gun to fight recognised Republic of Croatia was a regular citizen and anyone who wanted to stay home - could stay home. So on, before operation Storm there was numerous offers to the serbian side and one of the biggest was full autonomy inside of SAO Krajina with they own police, money and government inside of Republic of Croatia. Serbs refused it becouse they idea was anexing Republic of Srpska (BiH) and SAO Krajina to Serbia making the state of Great Serbia which was btw a british idea long way before wwl to take over the western Balkan from the Austrian Empire which had a great relationship to banovina Croatia (british written book Načertanije, official author Ilija Garašanin). They refused that plan and offer, and after 4 years of prosecuting, terrorising and killing croatians making over *600.000* croatian and non serb refugees, they got what they deserved in a clean military action and political way. Before operation Storm Croatia had the "go ahaed" by the West. Why? Becouse the serbian extreme right wing only understands one language - force. Now, if I understood you correctly, you spoke about negotiations to bringing back teritorry. That happend too on the East Slavonian part of occupied Croatia becouse there was a operation planned - Thunder to retake Eastern Slavonia but it never happend becouse after Storm the serbs were willing to negotiate and that was a smart decision and they could do it also earlier but they did everything with force. You mentioned also croatian brutalities and commanders in trial, but you "forget" to mention what happend in Vukovar in that siege and later in Srebrenica and most likely it would happend in Bihac (west Bosnia) if operation Storm never happend. Also it is available everywhere on the net, a lot of serbs stayed in the occupied zones after Storm and they still there. The serb civillians that fled did it on recomendation of they own military forces which generals and leaderships run them over in their tanks. Yes, they run over they own people convoys. At the end, you have to know that Croatia defended its people and territory from the serb agression. Not like England/UK through history who conqered others making the biggest genocides all over the world in the past 1500 years.

[@rsrs1136]

Serbia didnt attack Croatia LOOOOOOOOOOOL

[@bobnonomen9244]

@@rsrs1136 Serbia didnt attack Croatia? Smoke another one bro

[@damirglavas7940]

@@rsrs1136 kzbin.info/www/bejne/paaZkoeMo5qGiaM

[@ShadowlessMan]

Lol croatian money was going to Belgrade omg u are such a bad liar serbia and croatia had the most money in jugoslavija croatian money was not going to serbia and serbian money was not going to croatia that where i stop reading your BS they money from both countries have gone to bosnia kosovo montenegro and slovenia serbia had enough money and dont forget thats not what serbia ruled it was from the croat tito he was ruling and he forced serbia and croatia to send there money to kosovo montenego bosnia and slovenija

[@bobnonomen9244]

@@ShadowlessMan BS! Tito was not a croat, the real Tito was killed in Kavkaz. Most money was floatkmg to Belgrade. Continue reading if you can handle the truth about our war!

[@therionman52]

Ok, so you clearly took the anti-Croat side, as traditionally British, and sided with the Serbs. Not surprised at all. They (RSK) were given a choice, a Z4 plan, to be the part of Croatia, under a huge autonomy. They even should have had their own money, police, government ect., but they refused as they considdered the territories they held as part of Greater Serbia. Same way you failed to mention that the Serb civilians "fled" because they were ordered to leave by the Serb authorities. They wanted to portray Croatia as agressor force responsible for ethnic cleansing and genocide, which is clearly a false accusation. Fleeing Serb armed forces even drove over their own civilians and later claimed that they were killed by Croat shelling. They wanted to live in Serbia, they got that opportunity. But let me ask You a question. Let's put it hypothetically this way. A national minority proclaims their independence in the middle of UK, banish all the people that are not of their ethnicity, burns their homes, rapes the women, murders the elderly, and shells british towns on a daily basis. You spend four years negotiating with the rebellious side, but they refuse all your suggestions for peace. During that time your citizens are being killed, your towns burn... What would Britain do?! I mean You, the Brits, fought the war (and lost) with the young USA after they proclaimed their independence, right? And the colonies were never at the British soil... The UK has raided, ravaged, enslaved half the planet for half a millennia, and now you people moralize Croatia for fighting for our SOVEREIGNITY?! Wow!

[@bubassvaba6221]

I agree! Even some serbs agree that its their foult, becouse, its the foult of one who started the war, to be blames for crimes, casulties etc.

[@therionman52]

@@makomaro That is where you're wrong, Croatia never tried to annex Herzeg Bosnia, nor was it ever a plan. HRHB was founded as an answer to Serb agression in 1991. It's goal was to protect the lives of Croat people who lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after it became clear that Muslims (at the time) were not going to help defend Croat inhabited territory of B&H and that they could not rest on Bosnian government help. The only reason Croats didn't suffer the same faith the Muslims did, is because of the fact they weren't living in a delusion and prepared for the worst, as the worst eventually did happen. As for Kosovo, it's the same deal as it was with the RSK. Belgrade supported the RSK, didn't it? But that support later came back to bite them in the ass.

[@bilic8094]

@@makomaro let him have it good job don't let the croatians get away with the biggest ethnic cleansing since WW2 .

[@thadayu5639]

@@therionman52 But Serbian nationalists hate Britain and believe that British government always hated Serbs and wanted to kill as much Serbian civilians as possible - firstly by Tito's hands 1944-46, and than in Storm by hands of Croatian army, and than by NATO bombing.

[@ljubicakovalovski3666]

@@thadayu5639 ma nemoj srbski nacionalisti mrze Britaniju,Britanija im glavni oslonsc u njih se ogledali i u Osmanije.

[@grigorijefimovic1087]

I believe that question was already answered by an international court of law. Here is a short answer: yes.

[@nashbridges-cu6dy]

Yeah but people are not stupid, only idiot doesn't see what actually happens there..

[@grigorijefimovic1087]

@@nashbridges-cu6dy you mean only a serb doesn't see? In '91 they banished a million and more croatians from their own land then proceeded to bomb our cities and terrorize our people for 4 years until 95 during which period many cities and towns were destroyed, and for the lucky people this only meant running to the shelter almost daily during the serbian air attacks. Lucky ones lost nobody, not even a limb, they just endured psychological torture for 5 years. So, in '95 serbs definitely had it coming. Serbs don't know that, they think we did something wrong to them, how dare we destroy their bombs with our cities. If serbs who lived here for centuries as they say were ready to respect this country, then i would say let them all come back and let this country treat them good so it never occurs to them to betray their brothers croatians again. But im afraid serbs haven't learned, looks like they became more agressive even.

[@Shiljamannn]

Krajna fell because Milosevic and JNA retreated. It was instructed from outside... Milosevic is seen as a traitor because of it among the Krajna Serbs. From a Serbian high rank military source that was active in the 90s, many of the Milosevic's decissions were directly influenced by the Americans and the EU... It was a pklicital agreement it seems.

[@northernstar4811]

"Krajna fell because Milosevic and JNA retreated. " In 1995 the JNA wasn`t in Croatia, at least officially. They did have some specialists on the payroll ( salary was paid by the Belgrade govt) . Milosevic armed Serbs in Croatia and they collapse after day 1 of "Operation Storm".

[@nekilik921]

It fell beacuse of Croatian army

[@Dislociran]

@@nekilik921 shure

[@themastermarko]

@Dislociran ono kad napises “shure” umjesto sure

[@logikus8638]

@@nekilik921 Literally nobody aside from Croatians believe that. That's like believing Albanians on Kosovo got independence because of their own military might.

[@antoniokralj842]

Croatia won the war in both mainland and it setup all for diplomatic talks and fast end of war in Bosnia and H, so 100% has all rights to make that day festival, its army victory day

[@miloskovacevic8912]

Yup... nothing says festival like ethnic cleansing. Im always suprised how blissfully you ignore those parts or your history.

[@antoniokralj842]

Ignore.?If you mean i dont care, then you 100% right, after you win any war you are gonna have that any way, look what happen to germans after ww2, or Croatian population in Bosnia during ottoman rule, and do you hear us cry and cry all days obout that! Serbs after end of war in Balkans were hated to the point im surprised that you even have any population...

[@miloskovacevic8912]

@@antoniokralj842 you dont care? Ok, that makes you a trash human being at least you re being open about it.

[@taeril1]

@@miloskovacevic8912 it's interesting how you like to pretend that war in Croatia started in 1995. Actually war started 1991, over 700 000 Croats and others were ethnically cleansed from these territories, over 7000 thousands killed, of those killed, around 50% were civilians, of those killed civilians, around 50% were women and children. Yeah, Croatia had right to fight for freedom and and foreign occupation of its territory as to enable Croatian refugees to return to their homes. Do you celebrate end of ottoman empire occupation of Serbian lands? Also mass exodus of all Muslim people occurred at that time, but they didn't go alone as was case in Croatia in 1995, they were forced to leave, and many of them were Serbs as well. Or you cry because your good ottoman liberators left you alone?

[@taeril1]

@Anonymous Bosch yeah of course, 700,000 Serbs killed in one place. Similar like Serbian president who often says that 20 members of his family was killed in Jasenovac. So I googled about it, I've seen some guy, from his previous fascist radical party, claimed in a book that only one member of Vučić family died in ww2 in bar fight. But of course, this might as well be typical fascist propaganda, directed against Vučić because he left this party. So I looked further and found article about this book, where they by name list members of Vučić family died in a ww2, and there they list by name Vučić family members, forgot the exact number but rather big number, now I can't know if they are all related to Vučić in reality as this might as well be Vučić propaganda directed to clean him off his ex fascist party propaganda. Any way, there they state that only one of those, they claim is from Vučić family died in concentration camp, and even that was not Jasenovac but Jadovno. Further, in Yugoslavia when they were counting all the people died in Yugoslavia during Nazi occupation, they come up with number of 692,000 for whole of Yugoslavia, and they put anyone on this list, even those who Communist slaughtered after the war through out the Yugoslavia. As they wanted to have this number as high as possible, as they used it to ask for compensation from Germany, after the war. And there you have got this number of 700,000 people Serbs killed in Jasenovac, of course, even this number was to little for Serbian nationalists, so they as well claim 1.5 million and more. Similar like they inflate number of killed Serbs during NATO action against Serbia, where in Serbia they regularly claim that 2000-4000 Serbs were killed, while real number, based on research done in Serbia is around 900 people, from that around 200 were Albanian civilians and anther 200 Serbian civilians. But that's just standard Serbian Nazi propaganda, similar like during surrounded Sarajevo during last war, where Bosnian (yeah Bosnian, but in Serbia you are still denying Bosnians existence and call them Muslims instead, trying to bandwagon on anti Muslim propaganda, like you often do in other caresses as well, like in ww2 you bandwagoned on Holocaust wagon and using this to claim that Serbs were also victims of Holocaust in ww2, even though Serbs were actively carrying out destruction of Jews in Serbia as well). Any way, as said before, in surrounded Sarajevo, where Serb Nazis were regularly killing Bosnians on streets, marketplaces and in homes Bosnians, often kids with snipers, 1600 of l kids just in Sarajevo. During this time in Serbia on national television you were running news about Turks in Sarajevo feeding lions in a Zoo with Serbian children. Typical Nazi propaganda, which you like so much, as Serbian royal family liked Hitler and his ideas so much, and especially they liked to photoshoot with Hitler as well

[@v21829]

Happy Victory Day - 5 Aug 2021 🇭🇷

[@jovanjorgovan23]

In chronic lack of any other victories, let the forceful expulsion of terrified civilians pose as one. God and Croats!

[@v21829]

@@jovanjorgovan23 Serbian propaganda. Serbs in Croatia fled from their homes because their own separatist government ordered to, even when Tuđman said that Serbs will be protected. Serbs were afraid that their crimes from the start of the war will be punished in same way, but that's far from truth. Peaceful integration of Eastern Slavonia, Srymia and Baranja is an example where Serbs are still protected like an endangered species by the Croatian Government. Our crimes were punished immediately after the war, and you Serbs still run from them. God and the Croats! Good day to you sir.

[@jovanjorgovan23]

@@v21829 I can't decide which is more reprehensable, believing in or simply parroting this fascist nonsense. What is wrong with you?

[@v21829]

@@jovanjorgovan23 You Serbs call real history nonsense so you could live in your bubble of how Serbs are heavenly people. Some Serbs maybe deserve heaven, but your war criminals deserve eternal hell. I won't discuss anything with you anymore. Pick up a history book that wasn't written by your pseudo-historians in cyrillic. Goodbye from beautiful Croatian Adriatic coast.👋 P.S. God and the Croats 🇭🇷

[@warlok007]

@@jovanjorgovan23 Fact under serbjugo army command orders serbservants ran away like mice.

[@cropro3802]

Although it may sound harsh, the sad truth is that if you look at the bigger picture, Serbs where mostly brought in Croatia by the Austrians during Austrian-Hungary and the Croats where dislodged from that area, and then Serbs driven by the fasicstic ideology of "Great Serbia", whic was based on historic revisionism and mythomania, occupied the 1/3 of the country. Lets also mention war crimes in Vukovar, Škabrnja etc. So, although their where definalty crimes during Operation Storm, I think the operation was valid, especially when you have in mind that UN and Nato where doing practiacly nothing to stop that crazy ideology. Also its important to add, than Operation Storm is the main reasone that a masacr didnt hapoen to Bosniacs in city of Bihać, whete almost the same thing happend as to Srebrenica. You can also look it in this way. If some minority in Great Britain or US would occupie part of the land, i am pretty sure they would not hesitate to take bake their land.

[@OsakaceniNindza]

It is funny how Croats like to accuse Serbs of ''Greater Serbia'' while the only nation that had its ''Greater'' country were actually Croats (NDH) and we know what happened to non Croats there. Especially to Serbs, Jews and Romani people.

[@cropro3802]

@@OsakaceniNindza Ilija Garasanin "Nacrtanje" the Bible of Chetnics and the idea of "Great Serbia", first there tried to acomplish it durin first Yugoslavia, by selling the story of one nation and through Karadzordevic dynasty,not to mention killing of croatians political leaders, brothers Radić, also economical frauds against Slovenia and Croatia (when Austrian-Hungarian money was converted in Dinars) etc. When we talk about WW2, Belgrade is the first city whic was "cleared" from Jews i Nedic's Serbia, also Chetnicks where alies of Italians and the Ustashe (look at the pictures on google, you can find them drinking together). On the other hand, the thruth is that Croats never wanted the Ustashes, for exemple at the elections in Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ante Pavelic and the Ustashe in Croatia got only 1% of the votes. On the other hand, Serbs today are still trying to sell the story that the Chetniks were antifasicts, which is obviously a cheap lie...

[@OsakaceniNindza]

@@cropro3802 You obviously missed the part where I wrote that Croats were only people in Balkans that managed to establish their own ''Greater'' country and that hundreds of thousands people were killed during the process. Ilija Garašanin or death of Croatian politicians can not compare with that. Not to mention that during WW1 Croats marched with guns into Serbia as Austro-Hungarian soldiers, killing civilians in Mačva and Šumadija and burning down villages. Talking about Belgrade and WW2 well let me tell you that Serbia (or what left of it) was under direct rulership of Gestapo. Same goes for only big concentration camp in Serbia (Banjica) where most of prisoners were anti-fascist Serbs, Jews and Romani people. Croats did not want Pavelic? Well Germans did not want Hitler also. At the beginning. It is very shameful from you trying to justify killings in NDH with bad economy in Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but I am not surprised at all. The fact is that most of factories were open in Croatia and most jobs went there too. i hope that you can see these links. The second row is for Croatia and Slavonia and the third for Dalmatia. i.ibb.co/7t9GbKc/Eu-WPh-SEXc-AAY2-Cs.jpg i.ibb.co/VNR9BLS/Eu-WPh-Sf-XUAEnyl-Z.jpg i.ibb.co/543pjfV/Eu-WPh-Si-XYAAR2yk.jpg i.ibb.co/kyKDk78/Eu-WPh-SUXIAAb-MMV.jpg And we do not need Croats to talk us about chetniks. Truman, Reagan and de Gaulle said enough about DraŽa Mihailović.

[@northernstar4811]

@@OsakaceniNindza "Croats did not want Pavelic? Well Germans did not want Hitler also. At the beginning" If you read history then you will know that Hitler was voted into office after a democratic election in Germany. While Ante Pavelic was installed as a puppet by Nazi Germany after it had invaded the "Banovina of Croatia ( an autonomous region of Royal Yugoslavia) in April 1941. Hitler also installed Serb general Milan Nedic in Serbia as a pro-Nazi puppet.

[@bilic8094]

@@OsakaceniNindza great comment i love it.

[@luxembourgishempire2826]

Heck yeah loving these videos James.

[@nativetorontonian]

U beat me! Haha

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. By the way, is the sound OK at your end. Someone else said it came across as low.

[@luxembourgishempire2826]

@@JamesKerLindsay Sounds ok to me James. Keep up the good work! Perhaps a video FINALLY on South America? Still no video on it? (This isn't a bash on you just a reminder)

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. I certainly haven’t forgotten! This was one that I had wanted to do for ages. As I mentioned, I have some South and Central America ideas lined up.

[@nativetorontonian]

@@JamesKerLindsay like why French Guinea is still Part of France, & wasn't forced to break away during the end of colonialism after WW2

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

The Serbs already lost in 1992 when Croatia got recognised, the Serbs just didn't realise it at the time.

[@fromdalmatia8721]

Any offensive aimed at liberating one's own occupied territory from the enemy is an absolutely and indisputably legitimate offensive. Setting up such a "discussion" by James - Ker Lindsay is too childish. That's like we debating whether the Russian offensive against Hitler was legitimate or not.

[@northernstar4811]

The Serbian warlord Arkan ( real name: Željko Ražnatović) took some Serb soldiers fleeing from the Croatian army`s "Operation Storm" and locked them up in dog cages, tied them up in chains and made them bark like dogs as a form of punishment for running away. If the Croats had done something like this to the Serbs you would never hear the end of it.

[@ukilectric]

This type of mentality is problematic, because it is entirely based on whataboutism. Regardless of the fact that Serbia (like any other country, really) has criminals within its borders doesn't in any way, shape or form justify or reduce the abhorrent, immoral and borderline sadistic behaviour of the Croatian forces.

[@northernstar4811]

@@ukilectric The Croatian army secured Croatia`s international recognised borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina which had been under Serbian control. The Serbian terrorists who had occupied parts of Croatia fled along with many Serbs civilians. The Serbs fled not because of the Croatian Army but because they were ordered to by the Serb leadership, a signed Serbian order exists. There are even videos on YT showed the Serbians practising a withdrawal before "Operation Storm" started. The other reason was that many Serbs didn`t want to hang around to face their former Croat neighbours (160,000 + persons) who had been ethnically cleansed from their homes in 1991 by their Serb neighbours. The Serbs knew the Croats would find their houses looted and burnt out. Many of the Serbs had looted their Croat neighbours houses and in some cases beaten or murdered their family members. During the Serbian occupation of parts of Croatia from 1992 to 1995 over 900 mainly elderly Croats who had remained behind in their homes had been murdered by the Serbs even with the U.N stationed nearby.

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

The Serbian warlord Arkan was in Croatia's custody, yet released. Interesting.

[@markopinteric]

This is a very nice review, but I think two important points have been overlooked. First, in 1995 the international community brokered a peace agreement, the so-called Z-4 plan, which provided for the reintegration of Serb-occupied territories and self-government. Although the Croatian leadership was already seeking military reintegration, they accepted the plan to retain Western support in the hope that the Serbs would reject it. And just as they had hoped, the Serbs (once again) overplayed their hand and after Serbian rejection of the plan Croatia was given the green light to proceed with the operation. Second, it should be noted that the evacuation of Serb civilians from Croatia had been organised by the Croatian Serb leadership itself and planned long before the Croatian military operation. The Serb civilian population was afraid of Croatian retaliation after reintegration and was willing to evacuate. It could be argued that this was done to forestall Croat atrocities, but this made it much more difficult to prove that the ethnic cleansing was part of a premeditated plan by the Croat leadership. (Disclaimer: all my comments on KZbin are temporary and I withhold the right to delete them without notice)

[@markopinteric]

If I may add a more personal comment, the Croatian army seems to be laser focused to achieve military objectives rather than taking revenge on Serbian civilians. This is the real reason why the military operation was so successful. If you focus too much on civilians (as the Russians are doing now in Ukraine), you will do much worse on the battlefield. This is an important lesson for all future wars.

[@perperius4714]

Croatia never really accepted Plan Z4.

[@markopinteric]

@@perperius4714 How can you not really accept the plan? Either you accept it or not. By the way, read Wiki: "Tuđman accepted the plan (which Croatia considered unacceptable) as a base for negotiations with the RSK,[32] hoping that they would dismiss it."

[@markopinteric]

@@perperius4714 You either accept the plan or not. Wikipedia: "Tuđman accepted the plan (which Croatia considered unacceptable) as a base for negotiations with the RSK,[32] hoping that they would dismiss it.[15]"

[@perperius4714]

@@markopinteric Tuđman said they accepted plan "as start point of negotiations", but Tuđman said to his generals and officials that Croatia will never accept this or similiar plan. Croatian parliament later rejected the plan after constitutional Court marked plan as "incompatible". Tuđman's secretary Vesna Škare Ožbolt said that plan also politicialy absolutely unacceptable.

[@jelenajm1160]

I wanted to mention a few things in addtion to the points that you have brought up to illustrate the context in which the Serb minority territories in Croatia can be fully understood. The vast ethnic minority settlements of Serbs in Croatia settled in the regions on modern day croatia between the late 1600's and mid 1730's, during the time of the Ottoman invasion of the southern Balkans where these minorities stayed up until the greater portion of the 19th century after which the Serb populations incrementally reduced, primary as a result of Croatia's successive and repeated ethnic cleansing efforts of it's minority populations.The Serb popuations reduced dramatically in WW2 during which Croatia collabrated with Nazi Germany in ethinc cleansing efforts of Jews, Serbs and Roma out of it's territory. After WW2, Serbs still remained a dominant ethnic minority until the Balkan wars of the early 1990's where the numbers of Serbs reduced yet again. My own Serbian family was expelled out of Croatia as refugess (along with throunds of other Serbian families) in 1992 from the region of Slavonia (a portion of Croatia where there was historically a large documented Serbian population since the 1600 century. I have been able to trace back my own family to Croatia territory back to 1735 through census information.

[@user-jo3tn6cu4n]

fake and lies

[@mrasabaharsa-kq2fn]

Tell us about serbian genocide and ethnic cleansing of bosniak and albanian people in the 1990s Srebrenica, Prijedor, Foca, Posavina, Sarajevo, Visegrad, Zvornik, Kozarac, Jajce, Bijeljina, Banja Luka, Vukovar, Dubrovnik, Skabrnja etc. Serbs bunch of hypocratic cry Babys talking about ethnic cleansing while they are genocidal themself and started EVERY WAR in the balkans...

[@LMisetic]

Mr. Ker-Lindsay makes several key assertions here for which he provides no evidence, and indeed are contradicted by the plain evidence. He repeats several times that Serbs were "forced out" of their ancestral homes in Western Slavonia and in "Krajina". He doubles down on these assertions by claiming - without support - that it is "widely accepted" that Operation Storm was an act of "ethnic cleansing." This assertion is contradicted by the final judgment of the ICTY in the Gotovina case, as Mr. Ker-Lindsay notes, and is certainly not accepted by the United States. He claims that a meeting of the Croatian leadership on 31 July 1995 was for the purposes of planning to "force out the Serbs" - again, an assertion expressly rejected by the final judgment of the UN Tribunal that looked into the matter. Let me also pose the question: if you believe that 200,000 to 250,000 Serbs were "forced out" of the "Krajina," by what means did Croatia force them out? What exactly did Croatia do to force them out? I ask because the Prosecution in the Gotovina case argued that it was the "arillery barrage" which scared Serbs into fleeing, but the Prosecution was never able to identify a single Serb who ever claimed to have left because of fear of artillery fire. Anyone interested in the real reasons for the departure of the "Krajina" Serbs during Operation Storm can watch the video on prepared last year on this very subject, except my video provides evidence to support my assertions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnytl5eNm8yBoKM&ab_channel=LMisetic

[@spencer871]

Just a heads up for anyone curious: -Disabled comments (doing this is always a bad look) -Only videos concerned with Croatia -Provides no background on himself

[@OkOk1100]

@@spencer871 this guy misetic is a Croatian revisionism history expert

[@OkOk1100]

@@spencer871 I would bet that his father and grandfather are nazi ustasha

[@northernstar4811]

@@OkOk1100 The "National Socialist German Workers Party" was a German political Party. You do understand that? Right?

[@OkOk1100]

@@northernstar4811 🤡

[@northernstar4811]

This is what US president Biden said about Afghan terrorists: "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," So imagine if Tudjman had the same policy to the Serbian terrorists that attacked & terrorised Croatia from 1991 to 1995. Tudjman went along with a complicated Z-4 plan that the Serbian side had no interest in and that they rejected. In other words the Serbs in Croatia did not want to compromise they opted for a war that they lost even though they were better armed.

[@petarticinovic2710]

@Marsonic None more so than the British, who probably green lighted Milosevic to go to war in the first place. Now they all want to vacation and retire there.

[@stevie6621]

Tudjman said that Serbs would cease to exist on record and he also said there would be no war if Croatia did not want it. The terrorists are the "Croatian government" and their so called army that illegally broke from SFRY and committed crimes against Serbian civilians.

[@nekilik921]

@@stevie6621 Explain to me why are there 2 Times more Croatian civilians killed than Serbian ones and what did that "legitamate" army do in Vukovar and Dubrovnik

[@boombang857]

Amazingly idiotic analogy.

[@ariefferdaus31]

Interesting video, James! The Balkan region has always been a very tough subject and these kinds of situations just makes reconciliation a very different discussion.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. Absolutely. It’s very interesting to see the reactions to the videos. It says so much. It often lays open the problems with talking about history and the difficulties of reconciliation.

[@ariefferdaus31]

@@JamesKerLindsay Yes! Reading about the atrocities by the Ustashe and how de-Nazification in Croatia didn't take place effectively is just one thorn for Croatian-Serbian reconciliation. Reactions to events like Operation Storm just makes it even harder. Whenever I write about the Balkans, this grim reality will usually strike me hard.

[@northernstar4811]

@@ariefferdaus31 The Ustasha regime during WW2 was a Nazi-puppet government installed by Nazi Germany in April 1941 after it had invaded the "Banovina of Croatia" ( an autonomous part of "Royal Yugoslavia"). The Ustasha ( their original name was the "Croatian Liberation Organisation") was not National Socialist but instead Royalist fascist at least until 1943. When the Ustasha came to power in 1941 they had to install a "King" from the "House of Savoy" (Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta) as head of state. This was one of the conditions imposed on Croatia by Italy.

[@northernstar4811]

@@JamesKerLindsay I suggest you read the Nuremberg court findings after WW2. This Allied court found that "The Independent State of Croatia" was a puppet state and that the "race laws" were imposed on it by Nazi Germany after it was invaded. You should be aware that the race laws were German laws brought into being by the Nazis in Germany and then forced on European countries they invaded incluing Croatia ( as a part of Yugoslavia) which they invaded in April 1941.

[@northernstar4811]

@@JamesKerLindsay "I think it is important not to paint the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) as some sort of imposed regime." Really? Can you explain to me who voted the Ustasha organisation ( a fringe group of 700 members) into power? It wasn`t the Croatian people , they had no say in the matter. So it was a imposed puppet state put in place by a foreign powers i.e: put in place by Nazi Germany & Italy.

[@kristijangrgic9841]

What is not mention here but should be is Srebrenica. There was another Muslim pocket at Bihać and Serb forces were preparing to take it. There was a fear in international community that another but much greater Srebrenica would happen. Plus anger at Serbs for massacre at Srebrenica which was under UN protection and dissarmed by UN. This is why Croatia received political "green" light from Western powers for Operation Storm and Flash.

[@shieldshockerwot]

Was operation Storm legal? Yes it was, more then your operation in Falklands for sure.

[@nashbridges-cu6dy]

How can be legal to expel innocent people from their homes??? 😳😳😳

[@mariocroatia9321]

​@@nashbridges-cu6dy They weren't expelled.They fled

[@nashbridges-cu6dy]

@@mariocroatia9321 why? Nazzi vampires from ww2 reincarnated?

[@alejogabrielgarcia8849]

I recently discovered your channel and it's fantastic. I love it. 👏👏👏👏🎉🎉

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks for making my point perfectly. You say that I don’t present the UN view. You’re right. I don’t. But I should have! You do realise that UN Security Council Resolution 1009 of 10 August ‘strongly condemned’ Croatia’s use of military force and ‘condemned’ the shelling of civilian targets. So, the idea that this was all accepted by the international community is absolutely wrong. It wasn’t. And pretending nothing really happened is part of the very problem I was trying to highlight in the video. It’s not that I don’t tell the truth. The problem as you see it is that I don’t tell *your* truth. So, again, thank you for underscoring the very point of the video.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. Do let me know if there are any topics you would like to see me tackle. I’m always really keen to hear ideas.

[@nevenbegonja8559]

if you like anti croatian propaganda, enjoy

[@lyndafayesmusic]

@@nevenbegonja8559 I thought he was quite "instructive " and "unbiased" See Redacted and Stephen Gardner for unbiased btw. And WHAT DO YOU know about Tesla ? I saw another video of Croatia and Serbia....was actually looking to find Bulgaria, ha; it said that TESLA was born in Croatia, but told everyone he was a SERB. Now I have to go figure that one out or my song lyrics will be inaccurate, !! HOPE THIS GUY HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR ! ( The "Professeur " ) LIKED HIS VIDEO; WANTED TO GET HIS "ATENTION!" You arrogant stuffshirt.! Ha ha ha...just kidding. Where's you suit jacket and tie ? I'm embarrassed at how little, most of our American CHILDREN in grade schools know about Europe; They couldn't find this on a MAP or a GIANT BRAND NEW GLOBE from Target until I showed them the BOOT OF ITALY! Knowing how important those Italian leather stallatos are to some of their moms, they learned that quickly! Ok, I asked Google for help on "stuffshirt" and those high heels, but I'll look it up later. I suspect you've taught World History to a few High School and College "kids" too ? GREAT VIDEO , DR. KER-LINDSAY! Baby Boomer from Hell, who protested the Viet Nam War, and burned several bras but it was a great beach party! Loving your videos. Can you enunciate a bit slower for the little ones ? Thanks, Teacher from Hell, San Diego Actually, I was Heaven sent and it's been said Heaven sent me a few of these: "God Gave Them One More Day", "The Lord is Always Looking for a Few Good Men (make those 2 governors) and "I Ain't no Middleman" videos by FredGold&LyndaFaye

[@lukadundur8341]

I dont see a problem with people fleeing conflict (war) as long as they can return to their homes latter .

[@JamesKerLindsay]

It wasn’t that they were fleeing fighting. That is, of course, perfectly normal and expected. It was that they were seen to be deliberately targeted in an effort to drive them out and ensure that their departure would be permanent. This is really the very definition of ethnic cleansing.

[@LMisetic]

@@JamesKerLindsay You cannot simply say that the Serbs in "Krajina" were "deliberately targeted," while providing no evidence to support that charge. Let me repeat: not a single Serb ever claimed to have left Croatia due to an artillery attack. Not one of the 200,000 to 250,000 Serbs you claim left.

[@mariomijic7110]

@@JamesKerLindsay Very serious allegations for which you have no evidence and you do not respect the decisions of the International War Crimes Tribunal. Pure revisionism.

[@northernstar4811]

@@JamesKerLindsay "It was that they were seen to be deliberately targeted in an effort to drive them out " Well, as other people have said here show us the evidence. Some advice: there isn`t any, otherwise it would have been produced at the Hague court.

[@northernstar4811]

@Kat the contrarian Serbian President Milosevic started the war in 1991, in 1995 he was watching the Serbs on T.V fleeing the Croatian army advance. He commented that he was digusted the Serbs were running away "like rabbits" on the first day of battle as he had supplied them well with weapons. P.S Serbia owes Croatia at least $38 billion USD in war damages.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

With pride and and with all your heart, celebrate the magnificent Operation Storm every year, far into the future. After five years of terror, destruction of cities and war crimes, it ended the Greater Serbia aggression on Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina, and after Srebrenica genocide stopped the continuation of genocide and the greatest ethnic cleansing of non-Serbians from Vojvodina and Bosnia&Herzegovina after the WW2.

[@OkOk1100]

NATO, USA, Germany enabled you guys to commit the biggest ethnic cleansing since WW2.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

@@OkOk1100 The world has not given Serbs over a thousand years in prison for fun...

[@BM-jm2tg]

@@user-xj3ve7wt8k You celebrate former killings and other people's suffering, not even dreaming of something more beautiful that you could leave to the world

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

@@BM-jm2tg Happy Operation Storm ! LOSERS !

[@OkOk1100]

@@user-xj3ve7wt8k kangaroo court. How many innocent lives did bombs from the Bush's and Clinton regime kill? Where is there day in court?

[@zlatkoroncevic100]

what is worse is to attack another country and occupy its territory or for it to regain its territory

[@asterixx6878]

I would be lying if I said that Croats in general became 'sad' when the Serbs left Croatia in 1995. In fact, it was completely unexpected that so many of them chose to leave Croatia. But, no one forced them to leave their homes. The Serbs themselves chose to leave Croatia, partly because their leaders had brainwashed them and partly because they were afraid of being prosecuted for the war crimes that many, many of them had committed. Do not forget that all non-Serbs were killed or expelled from 'krajina', as early as 1991. In retrospect, it is understood that the Serbs did not want to meet those they had expelled, terrorized and humiliated. For those who are interested, there are many videos on youtube, where you can see how the Serbs plan to leave Croatia, long before operation Storm.

[@asterixx6878]

@CRAM MARC I guess this this is one of the most telling clips. The clip was used in The Hague as proof that the Serbs were planning to leave Croatia in the event of the fall of their quasi-republic. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4rNmWaXdtuWsMU

[@daniel72122]

@CRAM MARC kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnytl5eNm8yBoKM Most detailed presentation you will ever find with an abundance of visual and audio evidence.

[@ginaz1622]

Yes nothing to do with our homes being burnt and family killed. My grandma and other old people in the village executed. Yes we choose

[@daniel72122]

@@ginaz1622 I'm sorry individual soldiers commited crimes in the aftermath of the operation in retaliation for their family and friends being savagely murdered. I am honestly sorry. But do no equate individual crimes with systemic war crimes from Serbian political elite

[@ginaz1622]

@@daniel72122 Individual, this happened systematically from one Serb village to the next. If you look on Google maps you will see thousands of burnt houses still where the Serbs once lived. Half my mums village was killed and they are still in mass burials if we could at least have the remains returned it would help with the healing process. In the village I lived in our neighbours were shot on the street by the Croatian army. The only reason I am alive and the rest of the village survived was because the people from the Croatian village next to ours came and intevened and stopped them from killing us all. I have no hate for normal Croatian people and have many Croatian friends in Australia. However brushing the crimes committed against the Serb community as propaganda or as random acts of violence will never enable the region to heal.

[@dino5119]

Interesting video mr James. You got a new subscriber

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thank you very much indeed. Welcome!

[@dangovorcin]

I would suggest the author to take some courses about Croatian history.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

No need. I understand the region and its history perfectly well.

[@drzavahercegbosnaponosna5974]

dan, a što si očekivao od njega?! da bude istinit, LOL?!?! just FUCK HIM!

[@momcilogavric4930]

Better not 😁

[@mateduhpas133]

@@JamesKerLindsay ha ha you just thinking you know. You were deceived by Serbian propaganda. Read the book Serbia's secret war by Philip J Cohen. Maybe then you will understand all balkans wars.

[@drzavahercegbosnaponosna5974]

@@mateduhpas133 mate, ne radi se o "nerazumijevanju". radi se o svjesnom i podlom podvaljivanju hrvatima što sustavno rade njihove službe. engleski je to pas, ops, Ker.

[@Ivan-hq7bd]

Dear readers, Hitler justified his attack on Czechoslovakia by claiming that there was discrimination against the German minority. In the 1990s Milosevic (the Serbian leader) committed aggression against Croatia by claiming that the Serbian minority was discriminated against. Milosevic committed aggression in a much more clever way however, as he was able to claim that the Yugoslav army was fighting. In reality, the Yugoslav army had been transformed into a de-facto Serbian army. The sinister Milosevic plan to create a so-called Greater Serbia (planned, financed and implemented in Belgrade) could only happen thru aggression because Serbs were a minority both in Croatia and Bosnia & Hercegovina. In reality, therefore, it was one battlefied. Hence, while the wars in Croatia and Bosnia & Hercegovina were disguised as civil wars, they were actually wars of Serbian aggression. One notable reference is Margaret Thatcher. Another, Phillip Cohen’s book. Regards.

[@bignuschungus3955]

True, and because of Miloševićes actions Yugoslavia failed as a state.

[@boombang857]

This rhetoric is incredibly tedious. It was a civil war, Croatia never existed as a sovereign nation (unless you believe that the NDH was a legitimate country). Only Serbia and Montenegro did. You illegally tried to secede, every sovereign nation would protect its integrity. If you gave the Serbs the same right to self-determination it probably wouldn't escalate the way it did. The problem was your fascistic leaders did not just want independence, but a country without Serbs. And you got away with ethnic cleansing, both in the WWII and during this shameful operation. Serbs are to blame as well, no question about that, but this picture you are trying to paint is so oversimplified and illegitimate, it's actually scary. I just hope that this nonsense isn't taught in your schools (probably is).

[@Ivan-hq7bd]

Nonsense? Why don’t you tell that to the people of Vukovar or Srebrenica who were taken by the Serbian (I am sorry Yugoslav army) and were never to be seen again. Vukovar resembled Stalingrad. Of course this is taught in schools as everything I said is based on documents and evidence. Everybody in the region knows that when it comes to history, the Serbian establishment is a notorious liar. It is evident that you, as have many Serbs, have been manipulated by Serbian propaganda. The only way for the Serbian establishment to carve out a greater Serbia is thru lies and genocide. There was no region in Croatia in 1991 (or ever in history) with a Serbian majority. So even if the Serbs in Croatia were given the right to secede (they have above and beyond what other minority’s have in Western Europe) they could not! Of course it is possible that the Serbs create a brand new region, ethnically cleanse the non Serbs, and using war and genocide, attempt to secede. Sound familiar? Of course. That is exactly what your beloved Serbs did. You did it in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Did the Croatian minority in Serbia do something similar? Did the Bosnian community in Serbia do something similar? Neither did. Nothing disturbing like that would ever even come into question. May I remind you that the Croatian government in 1991 was democratically elected. As a Partisan the President of Croatia fought against fascism in WWII! Your comments would be laughable if they were not sad because it is precisely your kind of thinking that caused war and bloodshed in the 1990s. Be a man and take full responsibility for the Serbian aggression on Croatia and other states / territory’s of the 1990s. No relativism. Not happening. Clearly you have learned nothing. I will pray for you.

[@boombang857]

@@Ivan-hq7bd The bubble you live in will not help you.

[@siveric32]

@@boombang857 what a brainwashed fool you are.... live your delusions but live them the hell away from Croatia

[@filijala7925]

Operation Storm brought peace to the region.

[@ukilectric]

Aha... sure Jan.

[@kategoried7501]

@@ukilectric Croats with Operation Storm actually stop the war which Serbians started.

[@kosovoisserbia8937]

Operation Slovenian pits 1945 is what brought peace to region.

[@497novakl]

@@kategoried7501 само настави лагати уво

[@497novakl]

@@bangi2757 cccc

[@Unclenedi]

Giving you a like just for having the nerve to wade into Balkan waters😂😂 this is the first video I’ve seen so I’m sure you expect some heat at this point. I’ve got some refugee friends I’ve talked through this a ton with, separately of course. Forever the powder keg, never the cannon.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Haha! Thanks. Fortunately, on the Balkans I am on very familiar ground. (I’d never call it safe ground!) I actually specialise on the region. But do share the videos with your friends and see what they think. :-)

[@hrvojebrzica3396]

Did you investigate why did 250000 Serbs left Krajina during operation Storm? Were they sent away by force or was it plan of evacuation

[@radex__]

Considering that those who refused to flee were sometimes murdered on their front porch it is clear that Croatian army used fear as a means of ethnic cleansing.

[@hrvojebrzica3396]

@@radex__ Not my question and not true, because Croats wanted them to stay. I am asking were they ordered to leave by Croats or evacuated by Serbs

[@JamesKerLindsay]

I think it is important that Croatia accepts that it did amount to ethnic cleaning. The claim that they they all just picked up and left and that Croatia really wanted them to stay in simply not true. It is a nice story that the country tells itself - and all countries do this with parts of their history - but it it incorrect to view this as merely a Serbian 'evacuation' of a quarter of a million people.

[@hrvojebrzica3396]

@@JamesKerLindsay No I think it is important to know that there was a offer for them to stay when they surrendered, but they decided to leave. And it is important to know evacuation was planned and rehearsed prior to operation Storm.

[@hrvojebrzica3396]

@@JamesKerLindsay Military exercise evacutaion of civilians July 1995 kzbin.info/www/bejne/fX6Qo3isjsl5a9E&ab_channel=SBIP

[@deivydasjuonys6487]

Greeting, nice video professor. In the modern history there are two similar cases: When The Soviet Union together with the Allies vanquished The Nazi Germany: USSR Premier Joseph Stalin forcibly expeld many Germans from Silesia to then divided Germany. And Silesia was given to then Communist Polish People's Republic . Similar action happened after the Fall of the Soviet Union. Russia then and now supports breakaway country of Trasnistria.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Good evening! I hope you are well. Great examples. I really want to do a more on the breakaway territories of the former Soviet Union, especially Tansnistria.

[@user-xj3ve7wt8k]

@ deivydas juonys Everyone did it. In every war. After the WW2, Serbians expelled 300.000 Germans and 200.000 Hungarians from Vojvodina ( today's northern autonomous province of Serbia ). People do not even know that.

[@joestephen3756]

@@matthiasmax2849 it's a bit more complicated than that... The Krajina had in theory been part of Croatia since Tomislav (910-29, arguably the first real king of Croatia), but under Hapsburg rule it became a heavily militarised, autonomous frontier region to act as a buffer against the Turks. A fair number of Serbs already lived in the region, but their numbers were increased hugely by the forced sedentarisation of the Vlachs and Morlachs in the region (nomadic tribesmen, largely Romance-speaking but Serb Orthodox) and the settlement of Serbian refugees, especially after Patriarch Arsenije's revolt in Kosovo in 1690, which led to 30,000 Serb families fleeing north, mostly to Austrian territory. The Krajina was not administered by the Croatian Sabor, rather it was governed (albeit loosely) directly by Vienna. The Serbs there were required to provide a certain number of troops per household (zadruga), but on the whole lived peacefully with Croatian frontiersmen until the Second World War, when the Ustaša regime massacred tens of thousands of Krajina Serbs. Basically, you can't argue that "no one expelled the Serbians, no one evicted them, and that was Croatian territory for 1,200 years", because a) Serbs had lived there for about 300 years at least (many for much longer), and b) it was nominally Croat territory, but hadn't actually been governed by them for the vast majority of the time period you describe.

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@joestephen3756 Serb-centric history is always alternative history. There was the absorption of Croatia by forces loyal to Yugoslavia and a proclamation of dictatorship in 1929 by self-proclaimed king Alexander I and this was unpopular among Croatian peasantry, who rose up. When Yugoslavia fell, retreating Serbs massacred Croats indiscriminately and rebelled to establish another Yugoslavia far beyond Croatia, as they had already annexed parts of Kosovo illegally and terrorized Macedonia. The fundamental issue is whether the Serbs in 1995 can be described as ethnically cleansed because they left feeling a subjective sense of endangerment or uncertainty which is what happened, largely before the Croatian Army was in contact with the fleeing Serbian population. They in fact fled and were resettled in Bosnia, which was convenient, although nobody sees patterns, apparently. In absence of brutality seen in Eastern Bosnia in 1992, where there were acts that induced the mass flight of population (targeted executions, rapes, burning of homes, mosques, libraries, places of worship), there is no legitimate claim to ethnic cleansing. It has to take into consideration not only the flight but the cause.

[@tylerspunucious7420]

Will you do Operation Medak Pocket as well? You usually hear about what the Serbs did (and I'm under no illusions that they didn't do most of it), and rarely hear about what the other two factions did. The UN angle is also interesting.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Great question! As you saw, I just briefly mention Medak Pocket. It was a brief, but extremely brutal, chapter in the conflict. More generally, there are a few aspects of the situation I necessarily had to gloss over to keep the narrative short. I will see if I can return to some of them in a later video. For example, I would like to have a paper discussion on why some parts of Yugoslavia had the right to secession and not others. This is often a question that confuses people - and for good reason.

[@yuslaven89]

@@JamesKerLindsay I'll try to answer why some part of Yugoslavia have right to succession and others don't. First, I will change the question itself. More accurate question would be Why some republics were allowed to breakout and others don't? Because, in 1974. Yugoslav Constitution, every Republic have right to self-determination up to full independence. Catch was that in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina by that same constitution Serbs were "constitutive" nation. In other words, if they wanted to succeed, they must convince Serbs to agree to secession. They knew that was impossible so they just bypassed them. And that wasn't possible for few reasons. First of all, Serbians were comfortable in Yugoslavia. They all lived in same country, were the most populous and after Milošević have the most power in Federation. I guess in some way as Englishmen are comfortable in UK (minus Milošević :) ). Other reason was that memories from WW II, and Serbs experience from NDH (Independent State of Croatia - German puppet) were still vivid. Aftermath of war prove them right. In Slovenia and Macedonia this wasn't the case. There was a brief war in Slovenia but not real determination to stop succession. In Macedonia therms were agreed in half an hour long meeting. At the end I just want to say you are doing the great job. Servus.

[@rigrag7876]

@@JamesKerLindsay that would be very interesting!

[@yuslaven89]

@@lacman6159 Of course Serbians are not innocent, but things rarely falls out of nowhere. Context does matter.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

@@yuslaven89 Thanks. Very good points. You are right. Yugoslavia made particular sense for Serbia. And there is an irony that Croatia complains about Serbs wanting to remain with Serbia, but tending to ignore their role in fighting for Croats is Bosnia to do the same. The points about the Independent State of Croatia is important. I did in fact talk about this, and Serb concerns about it, in the original script, but I decided to omit it in the end for several reasons. It made things a little too difficult to follow for non-specialists. This is a big problem in all my videos. It’s always a fine balance between too information and narrative flow. But I accept that this did shape concerns for many Croatian Serbs.

[@androandro3499]

Croatia in my ❤️

[@mariomijic7110]

The Croatian president did not organize any meeting on the expulsion of Serbs. At the beginning of 1991 he repeatedly warned them on national radio and television not to listen to Belgrade because they would be manipulated and would lose everything. They laughed because they had the JNA behind them. No one expelled the Serbs, they left because they did not want to live with us and because Slobodan Milosevic wanted to settle them in Kosovo to change the ethnic picture in relation to the Albanians.

[@bilic8094]

It was the biggest ethnic cleansing of one group of people since WW2 you can try to water it down all you want but in the end it was the shelling that drove the people out nobody leaves their homes at free will.

[@bilic8094]

Also here's where tudman says it kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKfWgHyPorxprbc

[@mariomijic7110]

@@bilic8094 I think we call that war. Artillery is part of it and it striked legit points. As I said we have International court decision about it so try to understand altough I know it is difficult. Maybe at home you have Slobodan Milošević picture on the wall so I know it is not easy.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Sorry, but you are incorrect on both scores. Have you read the transcripts of the ICTY case against Gotovina? The meeting most certainly took place (although the ICJ later said that it didn’t amount to intent fir the purposes of genocide, as Serbia later claimed). And the idea that Croatia put out statements reassuring Serbs is completely and utterly wrong. It did the exact opposite in the run up to the operation. It left no doubt about what was coming and effectively told people to get out as fast as they could. It was only when it started that it tried to say that it would respect their rights. But I don’t suppose many people would have heard that in the midst of shelling. Seriously, I know that this is seen as a moment of national celebration in Croatia. I accept that. And I purposefully presented what the Serbs did. But Croatia also has to accept that this wasn’t the nice, clean operation that the sanitised history in the country presents it as being.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

You do realise the UN Security Council Resolution 1009 explicitly condemned Croatia fir shelling civilian areas. And let’s not forget them at the highly controversial ICTY appeal has been heavily criticised not because it acquitted Gotovina on the grounds that the shelling didn’t happen, but because it disagreed with how the original trial came up with its definition of what constitutes indiscriminate shelling. So, it is in fact wrong to say that international Court judgements have entirely exonerated Croatia on this score. At best, they’ve created an ambiguity that hopefully another Court in another situation won’t ever have to answer!

[@HCUhardcoreUnited]

Every time I try to learn about this topic I leave even more confused than I was before. Yugoslavia is a very complex topic that boggles the mind.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Indeed! It certainly isn’t nearly as straightforward as any of the parties to the conflict would like the world to believe.

[@HCUhardcoreUnited]

@@JamesKerLindsay Do you a video covering it?

[@marsultortheavenger409]

There is a video about chronology of the war in Croatia, it makes it easier to understand. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6rbgHV-e76JhNE

[@mattbarbarich3295]

No not at all, just learn your history and it all makes sense. The biggest problem and complication is the meddling and occupation of these lands by foreign powers since about 1400 ad.

[@kategoried7501]

Its pretty simple

[@echo2302]

Croatian lands are not Serbian ancestral homes. They fled to Croatia during Ottoman conquest during which Serbia was conquered but not Croatia. Croatia was reduced to rubbles but never surrender, if Croatia fell Serbs would now call Austria their ancestral homeland.

[@Dislociran]

i see how this would be the justified reason for Croats to murder my grandparents torture my uncle steal more than 2 000 000 $ in assets owned by fathers family all before the start of the war or so called Serbian aggression. Thank god my Serbian grandpa who suggested to my Serbian dad and my Croat mother to go on vacation to Serbia before he and grandma where tied to the chair and blown up. should mention that my mothers family who is ethnically Croat who stayed in Croatia faced severe repercussions because my mother chose to go to that vacation and not come back because her husband and children were no longer welcome. But somehow in this nationalist country after more than 20 years of living in it she never faced discrimination of any sort.

[@echo2302]

@@Dislociran Što želiš ispriku? Traži to od 250 ljudi koje ste zaklali na Ovčari, od 8000 ljudi koje ste zaklali u Srebrenici. Meni je žao što se dogodilo tvojoj obitelji, ja ne podržavam ratne zločine, ali to ne mjenja činjenicu u kojoj se državi ratovalo. U Srbiji jedan metak nije ispaljen ako nisi to znao. Cijelu JNA ste iskoristili protiv nas i još kažete niste bili agresori. I Hrvatski rat za neovisnost ne mijenja što sam rekao. To je i dalje istina.

[@Dislociran]

@@echo2302 mislim da si promasio deo gde se to sve mojoj porodici ili obitelji desava mnogo pre zlocina koje si ti naveo i koje su ocigledni zlocini u mojim ocima i nemam problem da to kazem a definitivno ne ocekujem da mi se iko izvinjava u ime naroda za nesto sto su pojedinci radili. Hrvatska se vec pobrinula da mi to pojasni na nacin sto mi je naplatila 10000e za sudske troskove jer ocigledno nisam proteran i sve mi nije uzeto na osnovu moje nacionalnosti nego zato sto sam pocinio zlocine 5 godina posle zlocina pocinjenih nadamnom

[@echo2302]

@@Dislociran A kad si točno bio protjeran ako mogu znat?

[@personaldove]

@@Dislociran Why not demand a right of return? I'm sure there are still Serbs in Croatia.

[@emjaay80]

Can you make a video about mid 80’s conflict/civil uprising in Kosovo (autonomous part of Yugoslavia, linked with Serbia)? This was the first flexing of muscles of Slobodan Milosevic and perhaps the beginning of turbulent years in the Balkans.

[@milanlabus1582]

its unimportant, what caused the wars was the economy failing, Tito was sending everyone to gulags and nobody cared as long as pockets were full.

[@brianhein1662]

Very good video. I understand its more like a summary,but you tried to explain 100 years of antagonism in 12 minutes and thats just not possible.It lacks context , and its very hard to answer the question from the title without it.There is a lot of topics mentioned in the video that deserves more attention.Two of the key points in my opinion are : 1.Croatia had the legal right to leave the Yugoslavian federation, guaranteed by the Yugoslavian constitution,croatian serbs did not.When we decided to secede , than the problems started. Belgrade exploited the croatian serbs thru propaganda and rallies, held by serbian radical envoys.They spread fear all over those territories. 2.Croatian forces did not forced serbs civilians to leave their houses where they lived for generations, they left before the Croatian army even entered the territory,unlike the croatians that were directly forced from their homes in numerous occasions on occupied territory. Were there crimes committed ,from all sides involved , i believe that there was. Even one crime is to many , but i would still make a difference between crimes committed at the beginning of the conflict and those at the end.The motivations are different,and even in courts motivation is an important factor.Nevertheless regardless from motivation i don't condone Serbian or Croat crimes ,even if very different in motivation and number. Slaughtering someone in a foreign country (a lot of serbs that committed crimes never lived in Croatia) for sports is one thing, avenging your raped and murdered sister is something else, but as i said, still a crime.A lot of Allies war crimes committed in WW2 during the liberation of europe were exactly that,but its not discussed a lot, even if well documented.Again , again not justifying any crime , but as a human being i can make that distinction. In short,war is a very dirty business and everybody involved is going to have blood on their hands in one way or another.Sad and unnecessary. Lastly on the topic of peaceful negotiation , croats never wanted a war, especially with a force that was by some accounts the 3rd largest in europe (i doubt it, but it was surely very well equipped), and we had no armed forces at all. Nobody thought there was even going to be a war , we were just fed up from being exploited economically, not to mention that every branch of government was dominated by serbs, army and everything else. So we decided to go our own way as we had the right to do so under law,but they didn't liked it, and thats it. There was nobody to negotiate with.Either you remain in Yugoslavia or there is going to be war, and they managed to provoke it.we never wanted a war, the war was fought in Croatia, not in Serbia. I should also mention the great world powers...but that's another story. In short, the Serbs used their people the same way as Hitler used Germans in Sudetenland , or Russians are using Russians in Crimea, there are a lot of examples.Its a very old formula to get more territory . All in all ,good try.

[@JoffesThoughts]

Is there a chance you'll cover the history of the Bantustans created by the South African apartheid regime, particularly the Bophuthatswana crisis?

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Absolutely. I’ve actually written a script on this. The Bantustans were a fascinating anomaly. But just might be a good time to do it.

[@genijalac4656]

Its not serbian krajina country...Its croatian teritory.Serbrs is not forced to run away,we give them autonomy and safety if they stay,but they run...We win that day,we was defending our country from serbian attack...THat is all true!!!

[@nemanjajovanovic2957]

How do you explain killings of so many civilians, and bombing on serbian refugee columns, and croatian soldiers who maltreated and killed people from those refugee columns? Do you call that giving autonomy and safety?

[@genijalac4656]

@@nemanjajovanovic2957 How do you explain this...Where is war happen?In Croatia or Serbia?What is that?We defend ourselfs...Croatian army is not like serbian army,Your army kill my brothers and sisters in my homeland,croatan army never was in serbia...Shut up and stop lie.05.08.1995. Remember that and never come back!Vukovar,škabrnja,srebrenica...remember thaf names!

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@nemanjajovanovic2957 I can explain it. Your thuggish, sadistic narco-army across occupied territories of Croatia preferred attacking, starving, shelling Bosnians in Bosnian Krajina to defending Serbs in Croatia and their legitimate rights. With your forces in BiH, the result was you couldn't defend yourselves in Croatia across an enormous undefended front. The rest is history. What Croats did to you, you did to them, and what you did to them, they did to you. Moreover, some of what you did together to the Bosniaks of Central Bosnia in that hideous besiegement of almost an entire country, and keep in mind everything the Croats did to Bosniaks in Central Bosnia you enabled as you were supplying them indeed there were no other supply lines, you got back in the rear.

[@stephanottawa7890]

Dear Professor Ker-Lindsay; Why is it that you begin a number of your discourses with the 1918 date without consideration of the history that went before? Here is an example because you failed to mention until the very end as if it were just a side note that Serbian Orthodox had been living in the area in question for centuries. It is not as if they just arrived shortly previous to 1918 and pushed Croats out. Due to the Turkish devastation there were very few people in the region when the Serbs arrived. I think that you could have emphasized this fact from the very beginning and explained that the land in question could be seen as Serbian just as much as one could make a counter claim to consider it Croatian. It is a question of what trumps: Does the nation trump the land or does the land trump the nation? In a way I like your analysis in some places, but sometimes it sounds like someone repeating facts that anyone could look up and anyone interested in the field of Balkan studies should already know. The saddest thing for me is that all these people with the exception of the so-called Bosnians, are suppose to be Christians, but they seem to lack some charity toward their neighbours. Stephan in Ottawa

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. I don’t discuss history because it usually isn’t important! I know people think history matters. In many cases it really doesn’t matter that much. In fact, it is used to deflect from the real issues. This is a channel dedicated to international relations and international law. These developed over the past century. Frankly whether a country had a previous claim on a territory is irrelevant. What matters is whether they are violating internationally accepted boundaries that exist now. People like to think history is desperately important. It isn’t. It is abused to make points that frankly don’t matter in legal terms.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

As for the other points, this is a channel for a broader audience of people interested in international affairs. Most viewers don’t know about the Balkans. I therefore discuss the subject from that starting point.

[@mariocupic938]

Great video James. Could you make a video about nowadays separatist movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republic of Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia). I would help you with that. Greetings

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks Mario. One of my early videos was on why RS would find it almost impossible to break away and in a more recent one I looked at the possibility of constitutional reform, in which I mentioned the Croat wish for their own entity (something I can understand). But I might take another look at both. And greetings from this end!

[@ivopatiera8427]

@@JamesKerLindsay james you a antiserb...

[@antonijostojanovic3602]

Herzeg Bosnia is not separatistic movement. Herzeg Bosnia became "republic" only because of Owen - Stoltenberg plan and it accepted every previous and upcoming peace proposal

[@bobnonomen9244]

You would help with propaganda?

[@hasibhakanovic6682]

​@@antonijostojanovic3602 Did OS describe HRHB as a "republic", did it? Is a republic a state within a state now? Were these the "peace proposals" incidentally the ones that gave control over Bosnian Muslim majority municipalities, eg. Gornji Vakuf, to Croats, which your hooligans pre-implemented before pen was put to paper? Also, were you checking the passports and visas of the hordes of Croats and international mercenaries entering through Dalmatia to loot Prozor in October 1992? How about the Washington Agreement which was supposed to dissolve HRHB entirely? Why were there election posters of Tudjman in HDZ-controlled BiH in 1996 and why was Croatian currency being used and accepted in these areas?! Why bother with facts when you can have a preferred, convenient reality?

[@TheLocalLt]

Good job treading the third rail on this one, it’s immensely complicated and you presented a clear picture of the Croatia-Serbia/Yugoslavia War, the maps certainly enhance it, and I’m glad to see you touched on the (controversial) 1993 small-scale offensives by Croatia, which even in the massive BBC documentary from ‘95 on the subject are skipped, another interesting thing I didn’t even know for a long time was that there was a short-lived Dubrovnik Republic formed by Serb and Yugoslav units during the 1991 Seige of Dubrovnik. One other interesting thing is that Eastern Slavonia, which remained under RSK control after Operation Storm, was placed under UN ownership (one of the few examples of this, another being Western New Guinea which featured in one of your recent videos - actually another video idea could be the present day Abyei Area, which is sort of a cross between a UN administered area and a condominium) for a time, with the Serbs in that region continuing to live there under the UN’s sovereignty (there’s a crazy video on KZbin from the UN period where the Serbs show their displeasure at the American hand in their defeat by stoning Madeleine Albright as she walked through the streets). Eventually the territory was reintegrated into Croatia in 1998.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks so much. This was a video that I had wanted to do for a long time. I noticed a few years ago that the events around Operation Storm/Victory Day were becoming increasingly polarising. While Croatia obviously marked it with often rather ostentatious celebrations, Serbia began putting on events to commemorate it. I was in Vojvodina, where you can get the two national television stations, and it was incredible to see the contrast. But I also knew that it would be a very sensitive issue, particularly for Croats. And the reactions have rather borne this out. Given that I’d imagine that a lot of commenters were either young or not even born at the time, it presents a worrying picture about how these events are being taught in Croatia. As always, it’s interesting to see how people will refer to documents, but have clearly never read them. Gotovina’s acquittal on appeal is a good case in point. The dissenting opinions of the two judges is an absolute must read in this story. They raise some important points that left a lot of us watching the situation scratching our heads. Also, few seem to realise that while the view now is that the international community accepted Operation Storm, there was a Security Council resolution that strongly deplored the action and specifically condemned the shelling of civilian areas. This was simply not the clean offensive that many now suggest. (And yes, I thought it was important to slip in the bit about medal Pocket.) In any case, hopefully it will have left viewers with a bit of a clearer picture about the war in Croatia and shown how it played out. Anyway, I hope all is well with you. And thanks for the great suggestion on Abyei. I hope to return to Sudan in a future video or two. (I also hope to cover Darfur.)

[@daniel72122]

@@JamesKerLindsay interesting you watch Serbian news which is entirely state controlled for your opinion. Have you seen Aleksander Vucics deplorable speech from Glina Croatia in the 90s about ethnically cleaning Croats ,. It's on KZbin. This is the current president of Serbia who controls all media and is stoking the flames of the 90s once again. He is a denier of genocide and war criminals. He takes away croatian rights and declaring croatian language of the Bunjevci into a separate language in Subotica so as to minimize the Croatian population. This is all an attempt to create the modern Serbian World. As long as the evil fascist Serbian elite reign in modern Serbia there will never be peace. Modern Croatia has moved on and is the homeland that was envisioned in the 90s. All minorities have full rights, Croatia has entered the EU and made enormous reforms. Sorry you are biased. I see it now.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

@@daniel72122 What?! Are you telling me that you are surprised that I use Serbian state media to make a point about how the Serbian state views an issue? I’m not entirely sure you understand how this works! This is a video about how Serbia and Croatia see things differently. Of course I’m going to use Serbian media to do that! Just as I used the Croatian state media to research this video and outline how it sees the issue. Really, this is a ridiculous comment.

[@daniel72122]

@@JamesKerLindsay most of croatian state media is foreign owned. Lots of outlets are independent. Majority of Serbian media is state controlled. When you have Vojislav Seselj's right hand man from 90s Vucic running the Country of course you are listening to propaganda extended from the 90s into present day. I have no problem you telling the different perspective. That is absolutely correct. But do not try to equalize operation Storm with the disgusting murderous politics and war crimes that were committed for 4 years prior to Storm taking place.

[@LMisetic]

@@JamesKerLindsay Again, if you are going to argue that the majority in the Gotovina appeals decision got it wrong (or even imply it by making vague references to the dissenting opinions), you need to explain your argument and provide evidence (particularly if you are going to argue that the ICTY got it wrong and you claim that civilians were "deliberately targeted.") Which civilian areas were shelled? Where is the evidence for this? And no, the Security Council made no findings that civilian areas were actually shelled. Finally, are you aware that even the Trial Chamber that convicted Gotovina only concluded that Serbs from four towns (Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac and Gracac) were "forced" to flee by allegedly indiscriminate shelling, but that the rest fled for reasons unrelated to unlawful conduct by Croatian forces? However, the ICTY could never find a single Serb from Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac or Gracac (or anywhere else) who claimed to have left due to fear of artillery shelling? Ante Gotovina was the first - and so far only - military commander to be convicted for indiscriminate attack where there were no known civilian victims of the attack (no Serb civilians identified as having been killed, wounded or scared into fleeing). The Majority in the appeal got it right.

[@freeaigle7548]

Est-ce que tu peux nous faire une vidéo sur les fractions et ethnique algérienne comme kabyle, chaoui, targui, Mzab ...etc tu peux écouter l’historien Bernard Lugan l africaniste spécialiste de l’Afrique nord. La Kabylie a sa culture et sa langue propre a elle, on ne peut pas vivre avec des êtres différents de nous. S’il vous plait fait nous une sur la Kabylie et le sahel.

[@boris5664]

"Widely accepted to be an act od ethnic cleansing" ... By who? ICTY established there was no such intent, and the breakaway Krajina authorities organised "evacuation" of the civies. There is footage and documents to support this. Your statement is untrue.

[@Lawrance_of_Albania]

This was fair assessment of situaition in Yugoslavia at the time, i tough you would lean more over to one side then the other but you didn't.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thanks. I know that many in Croatia don’t like what I said and have argued that the Serb evacuation was all planned, but this simply wasn’t the case. Yes, they were rebelling against the government. But the attack nevertheless amounted to the largest act of ethnic cleaning since WWII.

[@josipivanic6755]

@@JamesKerLindsay Operation Storm is a response to the Serbian operation RAM, by which the Serbs occupied and ethnically cleansed 1/3 of the territory of Croatia and 2/3 of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina - which is the largest ethnic cleansing since the Second World War, and in addition they committed genocide in Srebrenica, and the Operation Sstorm prevented the genocide of Bosniaks in Bihać.

[@nefnandi1239]

Dear Professor Ker-Lindsay, needless to say, you have given us another great video exploring the thorny history of conflicts that have plagued the Balkans. Thank you! My only request: please do not forget Latin America! I would love to see you shedding light on recent episodes of Latin American history from an IR perspective.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

Thank you so much. I really do realise that I have neglected the region. I’m really sorry! I do have some ideas planned. Please bear with me! :-)

[@Levi-wi3fz]

No one from croatia forced 200000 thousand serbs out beside Milošević, get your facts right

[@JamesKerLindsay]

That is wholly and completely incorrect. I don’t deny Milošević’s role. But the Serbs in Croatia had their own fears and concerns as Yugoslavia began to break apart - a process Croatia played its part in shaping. And they didn’t just pick up and leave their ancestral homelands because Milošević told them to. They were being attacked and were forced to flee. This doesn’t excuse what happened to Croats ethnically cleansed earlier, but to say that this was all wholly and completely down to Serbia is simply untrue.

[@LMisetic]

@@JamesKerLindsay The imprecise terminology you use leaves much open for interpretation. You say "they" were attacked and "forced" to flee. If by "they" you mean hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians, then your opinion has been refuted by the ICTY. Even the Trial Chamber that convicted Gotovina never made such a finding. And no, they were not "forced" to flee, if by that you mean that Croatia did something intentionally to compel hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians to flee. If by "they" you mean that Krajina Serb forces were attacked, and Serb civilians subjectively felt like they had to flee, then this would be more accurate, but it would not be ethnic cleansing.

[@JamesKerLindsay]

If you are being bombed and pick up and leave then I think it is fair to say that by any reasonable definition someone is being forced to flee. This is terminology used on the news every single day. The debate over what bombing denotes indiscriminate is a legal discussion, which hasn’t actually been answered. But there’s really no challenging the fact that shelling took place and that any reasonable person would feel the need to escape from potential harms way. Regardless of how accurate or inaccurate (or neither) that bombing may subsequently be judged!

[@LMisetic]

@@JamesKerLindsay Sorry, but this is incorrect. As I have already mentioned to you several times, not a single Serb civilian of the tens of thousands you claim were "forced" out has ever stated (either at the ICTY or elsewhere) that they felt compelled to flee due to "bombing" or "shelling." Your video cites the 1996 Human Rights Watch report. Did it escape your attention that one year after Operation Storm, HRW did not quote a single Serb civilian who claimed to have left due to fear of shelling? But HRW did cite civilians who explained the real reasons they left. The story about "shelling" causing Serb civilians to flee was not invented until 2006, in the third indictment against Gotovina. The first two indictments against him from 2001 to 2006 make no such allegation. What you are unintentionally doing is spreading post hoc Serb propaganda and mythology which has no factual basis in the life experience of any Krajina Serb.

[@markojuric4954]

@@JamesKerLindsay Miloševeć told them nothing. This was according to the previous draft agreement between Tuđman and Milošević. In the beginning of the war, the US was supporting Yugoslavia as the one state and Milošević's concept one citizen one vote what in the situation of Serbs majority meant Serbian supremacy. Other federal units except Montenegro oppose that. After the war has begun the US started supporting Croatia and others . . . but the most important part took place in 1994 when Croatia was already well exhausted by the war and facing major financial problems when Tudjman agreed to surrender the Croatian National Bank and privatize commercial banks in exchange to support operation Storm from the US-led West on the politically, intelligence-wise, logistically and financially way. This meant that the Americans told Milosevic not to interfere in the conflict, and Tudjman not to do anything on Croatia's eastern border (Vukovar region) with Serbia. With the loss of the Croatian National Bank, Croatia exchanged the Serb occupation of part of its territory for debt slavery when Croatia began to slowly hand over property and resources to the global mafia, the same one that is terrorizing us today with coronavirus. For your information, operation Storm cannot be viewed in isolation from the war in the break-up of Yugoslavia. The finalization of the general war trade in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina took place in Dayton at the end of 1995, where Tudjman ceded Bosnian Posavina to Milosevic for the peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia what was completed in 1998, and gave up the third entity for Croats in the Federation to Izetbegovic. Milosevic returned 20% of the territory held by the Serbs in BiH in order to gain the entity of the Republika Srpska, so at the end Republika Srpska got 49% the territory of BiH.

[@baseballworldwide9439]

Considering some (take a guess) nations are not bound by these laws, it’s irrelevant

[@JamesKerLindsay]

But if we accept that international (or any) law is simply not applicable because some don't abide by it, then the whole system of order breaks down. It is all the more relevant and important that its respected when some countries don't abide by it!

[@baseballworldwide9439]

@@JamesKerLindsay well, I think we have a different perspective on the current state of international “order” then. Appreciate the reply though, cheers

[@daca8395]

Wait, if Croatia was legitimate in using force to take Krajina back, then wasn't Yugoslavia also allowed zo use force to take Croatia back?

[@TheKres7787]

I don't think there was a clausule in the agreement that stated "Croatia is legally allowed to secede from Yugoslavia, but will be crushed" ; )

[@daca8395]

@@TheKres7787 nor do I remember the clausula that dtated "this will apply retroactivly", but who knows, right

[@ogaduby]

Yugoslavia was formed, among others, by REPUBLIC of Croatia... Yugoslavia was a Federal Republic, comprised of 6 (socialist) republics. Croatia was a country on its own, with a kingdom of its own, through history intertwined with others and just like Slovenia had a legal right to secede from Yugoslavia and more so, break away from communism. No Croatian (nor Bosnian) soldier every set a foot inside Serbian territory. Never, not a single one (during Yugoslav wars). And after 4 years of conflict, one develops a pure hatred towards other side and when Storm was afoot and all those soldiers were, basically "let loose", like it often happens in wars, "shits happen". Were crimes committed? For sure... Can you blame the whole country and bring the whole LEGITIMATE (justifiably called liberation) operation into question? Absolutely not! Just like Russians now in Ukraine, Serb armed forces had NO BUSINESS inside Croatia nor Bosnia... Serbs started BOTH wars in Croatia and Bosnia, and ones in Kosovo and even in Slovenia... Civilians should never suffer but war is hell. Serbs started it. Croatians had every right to defend themselves. Operation Storm is a justified, legitimate VICTORIUS operation that ENDED a 4 year long war in my Country. SLAVA HEROJIMA! And Slava Ukrajini too - they're going through same hell as Croatia did, most likely worse. They ALL hate and despise Russian soldiers on their soil.. ALL OF THEM. Lots of crimes will happen there too, but ALL UKRAINIAN OPERATIONS are legitimate. And Honorable! Peace!

[@daca8395]

@@ogaduby yugoslavia, or rather kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed by Kingodm of Serbia, kingdom of Montenego and state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. There was no republic of Croatia, nor was there kingdom of Croatia after high middle ages. Republic of Croatia was formed when all other republick of Yugoslavia, on the second council of AVNOJ. Maybe learn some history befor commenting. Second, the whole declaration of independence was illegitimate, or Krajina was legitimate. You cant have both.

[@tonino5268]

​​@@daca8395 wow you really are not the sharpest tool in a shed He obviously meant modern Yugoslavia, post ww2. It was a constitutional right from '74 onwards to secede if you get majority vote in your republic. And Croatia had that right, just as any of 6 republics. It was rightful by law and consitution of Yu. So that makes every JNA move in Croatia since '91 illegitemate And there is no constitutional right for independence of RSK and RS. as they were not Yugoslavian republics. If you don't understand the difference between that, please throw away your phone.