RSA MADE A DECISIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE PRESERVATION OF REPUBLIKA SRPSKA AND SERB PEOPLE

BANJA LUKA, May 10 /SRNA/ – The memory of the Army of Republika Srpska (RSA) and its fighters must never fade, because during the Defense-Homeland War the RSA made an immeasurable and decisive contribution to preserving Republika Srpska and the Serb people in this region, said Slobodan Župljanin, President of the RSA Senior Officers' Organization.

“Preserving the tradition of the RSA and the Serb soldier must grow stronger every day until the Army is reestablished within Republika Srpska,” Župljanin told SRNA on the eve of the May 12 commemoration of RSA Day. He emphasized that the generations who founded Republika Srpska and the RSA bear the greatest responsibility for safeguarding the entity and for restoring its Army into the constitutional-legal framework of Srpska. “At any cost, they must not allow the enemies, mercenaries, and traitors of Republika Srpska to threaten the survival of Srpska and the Serb people by blocking the return of the RSA to its Republic and its people,” Župljanin warned. He recalled that throughout its history the Serbian people have always fought liberation wars, because freedom is the Serbian people’s greatest value—one they deserve and without which neither nation nor state can exist. Župljanin noted that the Serb people and army were forced into wars where they faced threats of physical extermination and expulsion from their ancestral homes. “Muslim-Croat forces, allied with NATO, failed to defeat the RSA and the Serb people, so they saw a peace agreement brokered by the so-called international community as their only way out—a pact that quietly saved them from total military collapse,” he said. The central event marking RSA Day and the Third Infantry (Republika Srpska) Regiment will be held on Monday, May 12, at the “Kozara” barracks. The Army of Republika Srpska was established on May 12, 1992, and at the end of the Defense-Homeland War numbered 210,000 fighters. A total of 23,752 RSA soldiers were killed. After 14 years of existence, the Army was integrated into the Armed Forces of BiH, where its military heritage and identity are preserved by the Third Infantry (Republika Srpska) Regiment.