OSTOJIĆ: BRATUNAC - PLACE OF UNITY OF THE SERB PEOPLE IN PRAYER AND GRIEF

BANJA LUKA, JULY 4 /SRNA/ – The President of the Veterans' Organization of Republika Srpska /BORS/, Radan Ostojić, stated that tomorrow Bratunac should be a place of unity and harmony of the Serb people in prayer and grief, as well as a place to mourn the victims and demonstrate determination, readiness, and perseverance to preserve freedom, peace, and Republika Srpska.

"Our gathering at this holy place is primarily intended to pray for the souls of innocent Serb victims – children, women, and the elderly – as well as those who defended their centuries-old hearths and the freedom of the Serb people with weapons in their hands," Ostojić told SRNA, on the occasion of marking 33 years since the suffering of Serbs in central Podrinje and Birač. Ostojić emphasized that the Serb people are obliged to nurture the culture of remembrance and pass it on to younger generations. "A people who forget their sacrifice and those who sacrificed themselves cannot understand the importance of freedom and the state that guarantees it, and this inevitably leads to history repeating itself and new suffering," Ostojić stressed. He underlined that it is everyone’s duty to prevent historical revisionism and attempts to characterize the Serb freedom-loving and suffering people as genocidal and aggressive, and to point out that victims, regardless of their ethnic group, deserve equal treatment. "We are obliged to point out that Serb victims deserve satisfaction through the punishment of their executioners and those who ordered the killings, as well as to remind of the indisputable historical facts that the Serb people suffered genocide in this area on several occasions during the 20th century," Ostojić said. He stated that the Serb people must bear witness to the attempts at ethnic cleansing of Serbs from their centuries-old hearths over a long period, and even today in peacetime through processes and decisions of the Hague Tribunal, the extra-constitutional Court of BiH, the Office of the High Representative, and the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH. "The broader agenda of the collective West and political Sarajevo is the disappearance of Republika Srpska, the unitarization of BiH, and the exodus of the Serb people from these areas," Ostojić warned. The President of BORS questioned why representatives of the international community do not attend commemorations marking the suffering of the Serb people. "Are Serb children, women, and the elderly considered legitimate military targets? Why were Serb villages burned and looted, and women, the elderly, and children killed in the most monstrous ways, precisely on the greatest Serb religious holidays? Is that part of their religious rituals?" Ostojić asked. Furthermore, Ostojić questioned whether, by imposing legal solutions, they are trying to prevent the marking of places of Serb suffering and to prevent Serbs from speaking, writing, and teaching about crimes committed against them, and mourning their victims. "In Bratunac tomorrow, we will also send messages of peace, because peace has always been an imperative for the Serb people. We are obliged to pay tribute to all those who fought for freedom – Serb soldiers and commanders. Do not touch Republika Srpska and our freedom, and you will never have any problems with us," Ostojić concluded. Tomorrow in Bratunac, 33 years since the crimes against the Serb people in central Podrinje and Birač will be marked, where 3,267 Serbs were killed during the Defensive-Patriotic War. The program titled "33 Years – A Crime Without Punishment" will begin with a Holy Hierarchical Liturgy served by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije in the Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God in Bratunac. Afterwards, a memorial service will be held at the Bratunac cemetery for all Serb victims from central Podrinje and Birač during the Defensive-Patriotic War, organized on the occasion of 33 years since the great suffering of Serbs on Petrovdan in 1992 in villages around Srebrenica and Bratunac, when 69 were killed, and 22 soldiers and civilians were captured, none of whom survived. During the Defensive-Patriotic War, Muslim units from Srebrenica most often attacked Serb villages on major Orthodox holidays, and on Petrovdan in 1992, they attacked the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase, and Zagoni, killing everyone they could, looting and burning Serb property.