Stormy memories.

The article focuses on Croatia, in light of the tenth anniversary of Krajina's recapture. Operation Storm, the Croatian military assault on Krajina, the would-be secessionist Serbian state in Croatia, with its capital at Knin, has left deep scars. Before the war some 600,000 Serbs lived in Croatia, making up 12% of the total population. According to the census of 2001, only just over 200,000, or 4.5% of the population, live there today. Reliable and up-to-date figures are hard to find. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe reckons the number may be higher, pointing out that many Serbs do not want to identify themselves as such. The Croatian government claims that some 95,000 Serbs have returned from other countries in the past ten years. But as many as 40% have come back on paper only. They have reclaimed their Croatian citizenship and their property--and promptly left again. Sasa Milosevic, the programme director of the Serbian Democratic Forum in Zagreb, which helps returnees, believes that the 2001 census figures are broadly right, and that Serb numbers are now falling because so many who did return were old. He thinks another 150,000 Serb refugees are still in either Serbia or Bosnia. It all sounds gloomy; yet there are hopeful signs. The prime minister, Ivo Sanader, has worked hard to reach out to remaining Croatian Serbs, not least because his government relies on the votes of Serb deputies. Much has been done to return property to those who fled, to the extent of evicting Bosnian Croats who settled in Serbs' houses. The biggest problems for Croatian Serbs are the weak economy and job discrimination.