The highest Croatian officials gathered today in the eastern Croatian village of Okucani to mark the 23 anniversary of the military operation “Flash”, which began on May 1, 1995, and reclaimed the previously occupied territories in western Slavonia.

The Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, along with the Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, and ministers for defence, internal affairs, and war veterans, laid a wreath and lit candles in the eastern village of Okucani.

The memorial site, “The Crystal Cube of Serenity”, was unveiled as part of the commemoration.

The village, located some 130 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, was one of the centres of the Serb rebellion during the 1991-1995 war, and a staging area for attacks in western Slavonia.

About 7,200 Croatian troops, supported by the police forces, took part in the military offensive, of whom 42 were killed and 162 wounded. The operation ended on May 3, after the last organised resistance of the secessionist Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) formally ceased. The majority of RSK troops surrendered the next day.