Croatia will on Wednesday observe the 18th anniversary of the combined military and police operation codenamed Flash, which liberated the then occupied territory of Western Slavonia and re-established control over the Zagreb-Slavonski Brod highway and the Zagreb-Vinkovci railroad, sections of which had been in the hands of rebel Serbs, supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) since 1991.
Operation Flash was launched at dawn of May 1, 1995 and was completed the next day. During the 32 hours, Croatian forces managed to retake 500 square kilometres of land from rebel Serb forces and regain control of the Zagreb-Lipovac highway.
Some 7,200 Croatian service-persons were involved in the lightning offensive, 42 of whom were killed and 162 wounded. One of the casualties was Rudolf Peresin whose plane was shot down by the Serb forces during the fighting. Peresin was a fighter pilot who became famous when on 25 October 1991 he defected from a JNA military air base in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and landed with his MIG 21 jet in Klagenfurt, Austria. Upon his landing, Peresin said that he was a Croat and did not want to shoot at his people, a statement that resonated strongly in Croatia as well as in other countries.
Operation Flash enabled the start of reconstruction of the Western Slavonia region and return of people displaced by war, and it preceded Operation Storm in August that year, when Croatia liberated central and southern parts of its territory.
In retaliation for the defeat in May 1995, Serb insurgents fired missiles with cluster munitions on Zagreb on May 2 and 3, 1995, killing six people and wounding 175, of whom 39 seriously. The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) later convicted Serb rebel leader Milan Martic for ordering the attacks.
Central commemorative ceremonies with top state officials will be held in the town of Okucani on Wednesday.
