STAMENKOVSKI: SERBS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN READY TO PAY THE HIGHEST PRICE FOR FREEDOM

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 4 /SRNA/ - Serbia's Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski said today in Banja Luka on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Croatian criminal Operation Storm that Serbs have always been ready to pay the highest price for freedom because they knew that life without it was not worth living.

Stamenkovski, who attended a memorial service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Banja Luka for those killed in a pogrom against Serbs from Republika Srpska Krajina, said that today is also dedicated to future generations, as an important lesson about life in this region, where it has never been easy to be a Serb, or to be one’s own and free. "That price was often paid with lives and was the highest price of all. The Serbian people have always been ready to pay it because they knew that life without freedom was not worth living," Stamenkovski stressed. She told reporters that, even after 31 years, no one can take Republika Srpska Krajina away from Serbs because they carried it with them. "It will always be a part of them and remain alive in their memories and tradition," she noted. Stamenkovski reminded that, at the time, convoys of people who had packed their entire lives into a single bundle set out for the only places they could go - to their own people, to Republika Srpska and Serbia. "Many of them built new lives, homes and households, but they never forgot their Krajina, their graves, churches and ancestors," Stamenkovski said.