ŽUPLJANIN: REPUBLIKA SRPSKA JUDICIARY SHOULD PROSECUTE PODRINJE WAR CRIMES

BANJA LUKA, JULY 2 /SRNA/ – Slobodan Župljanin, president of the Republika Srpska Army Officers Organization, said it is high time to examine all constitutional and legal avenues for Republika Srpska's judicial institutions to prosecute those responsible for crimes committed against Serbs in the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions, because, he said, justice will never be delivered if they continue waiting for the judiciary of BiH.

"Unfortunately, even after 34 years, no one has been held accountable for crimes committed against the Serb people in the Middle Podrinje region, which reflects a selective approach, even though justice should be universal and equally available to all victims and those who honor their memory," Župljanin told SRNA ahead of the upcoming commemoration for the 3,267 Serbs killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions. Župljanin pointed out that justice for Serb victims has been ignored in BiH and asked whether the grief of Serb mothers is somehow less than that of others, and why no one in BiH or abroad is willing to hear their cries? "It is devastating that all those who murdered Serb children, the elderly and the infirm simply because they belonged to the Serb people and the Serbian Orthodox faith remain free today, openly mocking both the Serb victims and the very principle of universal justice," Župljanin said. He stressed that Serbs must continue speaking about their innocently killed compatriots, preserve their memory, pay tribute to them, and pass on the truth about the scale of Serb suffering in the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions to younger generations. According to Župljanin, this helps strengthen the culture of remembrance while continuously sending the message to the world that Serbs were victims, so that one day the truth about the crimes committed by Muslim forces will be understood and acknowledged. A memorial service for the 3,267 Serb soldiers and civilians from the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions who were killed during the 1992–1995 war will be held in Bratunac on Saturday, July 4. During the war, Muslim units from Srebrenica most frequently attacked Serb villages on major Orthodox holidays. On Petrovdan /St. Peter's Day/ in 1992, they attacked the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase and Zagoni, killing everyone they encountered while looting and burning Serb property.