BLAGOJEVICH VISITS BANJA LUKA BUREAU OF SRNA AND RECEIVES SIGNIFICANT GIFTS

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 24 /SRNA/ – Acting General Director of the News Agency of Republika Srpska – SRNA, Tatjana Parađina, and the agency’s journalists warmly welcomed former governor of the U.S. state of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, in Banja Luka, where he was presented with a painting featuring the motif of the Bridge on the Drina, famously described in the novel by Nobel Prize laureate Ivo Andrić.

During his visit to SRNA’s Banja Luka office, where he will also be interviewed, Blagojevich received a gift – a book published by SRNA titled "Testimony on the Unpunished Crime Against Serbs in Podrinje." The book is a poignant testimony about the suffering of Serbs during the Defensive-Patriotic War, published in both Serbian and English. It presents painful, heavy, and harrowing news stories about numerous mass atrocities committed by Muslim units against Serb civilians and soldiers. "This is a collection of documents, narratives, and testimonies about brutal crimes compiled by journalists instead of prosecutors, whose job it is – and who are paid to do it," states the book’s foreword. In recent days, Blagojevich has met with the highest officials of Republika Srpska, including the President of the Republic, Milorad Dodik, to whom he expressed strong support.