Thirty years ago, the saddest column in the history of the second half of the last century arrived in Serbian villages and towns. More than 200,000 Serbs from Krajina were left without their hearths, without a future, but turned to Serbia and in the hope that it would accept them.
In August 1995, Rade Petrović and his family traveled from Banija to Čačak for thirteen days. He built a new home in the settlement of Atenica, but at the very mention of the word “Oluja”, this man gets a clear picture of leaving home and everything he went through in the thirteen-day journey.
-The most difficult thing was that a person goes, but does not know where he is going and what awaits him. Then, when we had to go to Serbia, we walked, did not put up any resistance and they cut off the road, everything was uncertain – Rade Petrović told RINA.
Rade, with his ten fingers, as a car body repairman, built a new home and educated his children. He says that, like every beginning, it was very difficult, every August brings back bad memories, but he was saved by the fact that he had a craft in his hands.
-If I hadn’t had a craft, it would have been bad, I don’t know if I would have been able to buy a plot and create a roof over my head. These are images that never fade and carry a clear message. A person must not trust anyone, must be his own, have his own attitude and be what he imagines, otherwise, there is no belief – concluded Rade.
However, despite the bad memories, these people survived the storm and settled down. They lived to marry off their daughters and have grandchildren.
A similar fate befell many people who found their new home in Čačak. Mara Kragulj is just one of them who spent 16 sleepless days in a tractor trailer, fearing for her life and the lives of her children.
-For five full years we fought to save our hearth, but in one night we had to give it up in order to save our bare lives, grabbing the last tractor trailer in the column. Many sought their place under the sun throughout Serbia after the storm, but we are all still tormented by only one question to which we have not received an answer to this day – said Mara.
In the military operation Oluja, over 200,000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia. More than 2,000 people were killed or went missing, and the Republic of Serbian Krajina ceased to exist.
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Source: RINA, Photo: RINA