More than 130 people are still listed as missing in the Croatian operation against Serb forces on May 1, 1995, the Veritas Documentation-Information Center said on Monday.

The Croatian army launched its operation Flash (Bljesak) to take control of what were the UN protected areas in the Western Slavonia part of the country in 1995.

Those areas were part of the war-time Republic of Serb Krajina which was formed by Croatian Serbs at the start of the war, following the breakup of Yugoslavia.  

Veritas says some 15,000 Croatian Serbs were expelled and 283, including 114 civilians and 11 policemen, were either killed or listed as missing. There are 133 people still listed as missing, including 59 civilians 27 of who are women, it said. Veritas said 148 bodies have been exhumed to date and 107 of them have been identified.  

The Croatian military captured 1,450 of about 4,000 Serbian troops defending the area, Veritas said, claiming that most of them were tricked into giving up with the help of UN forces. A large number of the Serb soldiers were tried and sentenced to prison terms while the civilians who stayed in their homes were put into camps and taken to Bosnia and Serbia, the Center said and added that about 1,500 mainly elderly people have returned home.