(ANSA-AFP) - ZAGREB, 05 AGO - Croatia's top ethnic Serb
official joined a ceremony Wednesday marking the 25th
anniversary of a military victory that ended the country's
independence war, setting a rare tone of reconciliation on a day
normally charged with tension. Deputy Prime Minister Boris
Milosevic is the first ethnic Serb political representative to
attend the annual memorial for the "Operation Storm" offensive,
in which Croatian troops reclaimed territory held by rebel Serbs
during the 1991-95 independence war. While Zagreb celebrates the
day as a victorious moment of liberation, Belgrade mourns the
fate of ethnic Serbs who were killed or fled Croatia in the
aftermath of the offensive. In Croatia this year, a small olive
branch was extended as the Serb minister joined other top
officials at a ceremony which began at a fortress in Knin, where
the names of nearly 200 fallen soldiers were read. Milosevic,
whose grandmother was killed in the wake of the offensive, wrote
on Facebook the "time has come for the politics of understanding
and of respecting each other to defeat the politics of hatred".
The gesture was symbolic of the Croatian government's pledge to
improve still fragile relations with ethnic Serbs, who make up
some 4.5 percent of the 4.2 million population. It will "send a
new message for Croatian society, relations between Croatians
and Serb minority ... between Croatia and Serbia," said Prime
Minister Andrej Plenkovic. Yet the move was met with backlash
across the border in Serbia, where pro-government tabloids
attacked the Serb politician as "shameless". (ANSA-AFP).
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