True, Diocletian, and it's good to have you back, BTW! In the south, around Knin, nearly all simply fled over the hills in those directions. And the HV/HVO offensive up through the Livno Valley during the week or so prior did leave an opening for the Krajina Serbs to flee from the Knin area as you said. I remember watching the HV/HVO troop movements there on the maps about a week before Storm and realising this was what they were doing. And if dumb little civvie me could figure it out, anybody could. Nearly all of the 800 IDPs in the Knin compound were elderly, infirm and/or handicapped. They couldn’t easily flee and wound up sheltering in the compound. Also, some had been wounded in the shelling.
But, for everyone in northern Lika (from north of Korenica), and in all of Kordun and Banija, there was only one way out: the Vojnic-Vrginmost-Glina-Dvor route to Bos. Novi -- a long and circuitous route as you well know.
And we all know that route was cut and then the fleeing Serbs backed up into a huge pool around Topusko (there were at last 30,000 in Topusko proper – not a square inch without a person or tractor on it). And all along the road from about Maja down to Dvor, it was a bloody mess. That route was no more by sometime on 6 August (I no longer remember the hour). It was a true mess by 7 August. The Terms of Surrender negotiated on 8 August included the “Op Safe Passage” of 10-12 August through Glina-Moscenica-Sisak and on to Lipovac because that was the only way out left.
Much of the mess on the Glina-Dvor road was the work of ABiH’s 5th Corps. Remember the pile of dead sheep at Zirovac we talked about? That was 5th Corps of course. And they slaughtered a number of elderly Serbs there – I’d guess over 100 in Zirovac and its surrounding hamlets. Ostojici Hamlet was really a disaster. Chopped off some heads, too.
But the Croats did their share, what with the MiGs strafing the “refugee” column and so forth. Certain HV elements acted with extreme heroism and humanity, for example those who actually directed “refugees” out of the killing zone on that road to safety in the village of Pedalj on the “HV side” of the road. There were some ZNG elements who did not act at all honourably on that road, however. And yes, I know, atrocities happen in all wars, no matter who is fighting them, and even moreso in civil wars.
Op Storm was planned and organised as a massive ethnic cleansing, not a mass slaughter. You are right. I couldn’t agree more. And there was a deal between Milosevic and Tudjman. True. And the RSK leadership sold out their own people. It was still ethnic cleansing, though.
And speaking of 5th Corps, what I really, really don’t get is why no one has ever gone after Dudakovic. You Croats could deflect a lot of criticism for Op Storm onto him. And possibly solve the Santic mystery into the bargain?