DODIK: WESTERN SLAVONIA REMAINS A LASTING WOUND WITH NO FORGETTING

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 30 /SRNA/ – Every May 1, with enduring sorrow and pride in honoring innocent Serb victims, the message is clear that the truth about the suffering of Serbs in Western Slavonia must be heard, justice must be pursued, and forgetting must never be an option, President Milorad Dodik has stressed.

Dodik stressed that the Croatian assault against Serbs in Western Slavonia brings back memories each year of days that remain an unhealed wound in the collective memory of the Serb people. "Western Slavonia is a warning that when hatred begins to guide politics, it always ends in crime. But it is also a pledge that Serb victims will never be forgotten or erased from history. As long as we remember, they live on in our history and in our truth, which must eventually find their way to law and justice", Dodik emphasized for SRNA ahead of tomorrow's commemoration marking 31 years since the expulsion of 15,000 Serbs from Western Slavonia during the Croatian operation "Flash" in which at least 263 Serbs were killed, including 107 civilians and 12 children. He noted that in early May 1995, in an operation that in just two days changed the lives of thousands, the Serb population was completely erased from areas where they had lived for centuries, building homes, being born, marrying and dying. He reminded that civilians were brutally killed, people disappeared without a trace, homes were burned, and the centuries-long presence of Serbs in Western Slavonia was nearly wiped out. "That was not a military operation, but a cowardly crime targeting the right of a people to live, remember and survive. This brutal act had a single aim - ethnic cleansing and the elimination of the Serb population, erasing an entire existence, culture and history that had grown there for generations. Its consequences are nameless graves, families without loved ones, without their homes, left only with memories and silence that cause lasting pain", Dodik emphasized. He pointed out that the image of people fleeing in fear, leaving behind everything they had built, from icons and oil lamps on their walls to their very doorsteps, remains deeply engraved as a warning. "These were convoys in which the elderly carried only memories, and children, who grew up overnight, carried only fear in their eyes, something no childhood should ever experience. Meanwhile, Europe turned its head away, and the Serb people disappeared", Dodik said. He stated that it is particularly painful that justice has never been delivered for many victims and that, instead of truth and accountability, there are attempts to minimize, ignore, or even justify the suffering. "While it is Christian to forgive, such a crime is difficult to forgive, children cannot be forgiven. Without truth, there can be no forgiveness. That is why on these anniversaries, which we mark throughout the year, we speak not only out of sorrow but also out of duty to those who were killed simply for being Serbs and to future generations who must know what happened. Remembrance is not a choice - it is our sacred obligation and duty", Dodik said. On May 1, 1995, Croatian armed forces launched an offensive codenamed "Flash" against the Serb-held area of Western Slavonia, then part of the Republic of Srpska Krajina, at a time when the area was under UN protection. In the operation, within just 36 hours, 15,000 Serbs were expelled and at least 263 were killed, including 107 civilians and 12 children.