ŠUŠNJAR TAUGHT US, SLOBODAN REMINDS US: SRPSKA IS OUR ONLY PROTECTION

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 1 /SRNA/ - President Milorad Dodik stressed that Republika Srpska is not merely an administrative framework or a temporary political entity, but rather the Serb people's historical response to centuries of suffering.

"Republika Srpska is a pledge that Serb children will never again be left unprotected. It is a political and moral safeguard against the repetition of a fate in which others decided the lives of Serbs, the Serb truth and justice," Dodik wrote in a column for SRNA, reproduced in full below: At places such as Šušnjar, people do not come merely to pay tribute to the dead. They come to look into the mirror of history; to see what happened to them when they lacked the strength to protect themselves, when others denied their right to life, identity, faith and existence. Šušnjar is not only a place of the suffering of Serbs. It is a place of warning. Today, we read that warning not only through what happened in 1941, when Serbs were killed simply because they were Serbs. We also read it through our present day, through the way Serb victims are treated and through attempts to diminish, relativize or erase their suffering. We read it, too, through the tragic fate of young Slobodan Stojanović, a child murdered in the most brutal manner simply because he was a Serb boy who loved what was his own and sought nothing that belonged to others. The reports that his killer allegedly enjoys privileges allowing time outside prison are not merely a legal or administrative matter. They raise a profound moral question. They concern the attitude toward Serb victims. They raise the question of what message a system sends to a people whose wounds remain unhealed. When indifference is shown toward Serb victims, when the murder of a Serb child is reduced to a bureaucratic procedure, and when justice becomes a cold formality devoid of any sense of truth or compassion, people rightly understand that it is not only one criminal being judged, but also the dignity of an entire nation that has suffered. That is why there is a difficult but undeniable connection between Šušnjar and Slobodan Stojanović. It is the continuity of Serbs’ suffering because of name, faith and identity. In different eras, under different uniforms and flags, the essence has often remained the same - being a Serb was enough to be considered guilty. At one time this took the form of organised mass killings, later as a wartime crime against a child, and today, in some institutions, it manifests itself through indifference, relativization and a willingness to reopen Serb wounds as though they had never healed. That is precisely why Republika Srpska is not merely an administrative framework or a temporary political entity. Republika Srpska is the Serb people's historical response to centuries of suffering. It is a pledge that Serb children will never again be left unprotected. It is a political and moral safeguard against the repetition of a fate in which others decided the lives of Serbs, the Serb truth and Serb justice. Anyone who asks today why a strong Republika Srpska matters can find the answer in places such as Šušnjar, Jasenovac, Drakulić, Prebilovci, and in the name of young Slobodan. Republika Srpska is the only guarantee that this criminal continuity will be broken. It is the only framework in which the Serb people can preserve their memory, institutions, schools, police, political will and dignity. Without Republika Srpska, the Serb people would be left to the interpretations of others, to foreign centres of power and to others' sense of justice. History has taught us that where Serbs lack their own institutions, they soon lose not only the certainty that their victims will be acknowledged, but often that their own lives will be protected. But this story must not remain solely a story of suffering. The Serb people survived not because they were weak, but because they possessed the strength to transform every tragedy into a lasting pledge. From ashes they rebuilt churches, from mass graves they preserved memory, from tears they drew faith, and from historical defeats they forged a renewed determination to live in freedom. That is Republika Srpska's greatest strength - it was not born out of hatred, but out of the need to protect life, safeguard children and ensure that the people would finally have something of their own to rely upon. That is why it is our duty to remember Šušnjar, never to forget Slobodan, to seek accountability for every injustice, and to prove worthy of those who suffered simply because they were who they were. We are not obliged to hate anyone, but we are obliged to protect what is ours. We are not obliged to threaten anyone, but we are obliged to be strong enough to ensure that such evil is never repeated. Republika Srpska is therefore not merely a political reality. It is the expression of historical experience, collective memory and the determination of a people to end the cycle of Serbs’ suffering. It embodies pain and warning, but also hope. It reflects an awareness of what we have endured and faith in what we can become. Therefore, when we remember the victims of Šušnjar today and speak the name of young Slobodan Stojanović, we are not speaking only of death. We are speaking of a pledge to life. We are saying that Republika Srpska will remain strong, stable and unwavering, preserving the truth about suffering of Serbs, but above all safeguarding the future of the Serb people. A nation that remember its victims and preserve its Republika Srpska is not a nation without hope. It is a nation that knows who it is, what it has endured, and why it must never again be weak. As long as Republika Srpska exists, there will be the strength to preserve peace, dignity and the future of our people.