DODIK: SPOMENKO GOSTIĆ'S NAME FOREVER ENSHRINED IN HISTORY OF THE SERB PEOPLE AS A SYMBOL OF COURAGE AND PATRIOTISM

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 14 /SRNA/ - There are names that even decades cannot erase, and that forever remain symbols of courage, bravery and love for one's homeland; one such name is certainly that of Spomenko Gostić, a boy who, in the most difficult of times, showed courage and love for his home, his village and his people, President Milorad Dodik said.

"Spomenko was a boy who, at just under 15 years of age, overnight stepped out of a carefree childhood into the adult world and into a world of war and difficult wartime years, immediately experiencing all its brutality. His life was short, but the mark he left is deep and eternal," Dodik told SRNA on the occasion of the "Spomenko's Days of Ozren" event, which symbolically pays tribute to Spomenko Gostić, the youngest decorated fallen soldier of the Republika Srpska Army, on the anniversary of his birth, August 15. Dodik stressed that instead of school desks, childhood mischief and first school-age romances, life led Spomenko into the harsh reality of war. "Spomenko was not only the youngest combatant, but also a child who, together with adults, bore the heavy burden of war, experiencing its consequences in the harshest possible way. Fate treated this innocent boy very cruelly. After being orphaned during the Defensive-Patriotic War and then losing his grandmother, the only family he had left and his sole source of support, Spomenko was left alone in his village of Jovići on Mount Ozren. After all the tragedies that his young heart experienced and survived, the 15-year-old boy refused an offer to be taken away from the horrors of war. Instead, together with his older comrades, he became a member of the Army of Republika Srpska, just as they were. He did not want to leave his home, his hearth, his Jovići or Ozren, believing that one day he would live to see freedom in his Republika Srpska," Dodik said. Unfortunately, he added, a Muslim shell cut short the young boy's life and his dreams of freedom and a better life. "Spomenko would today be a mature 48-year-old man, a husband and a father. But he is no longer among us. Although his earthly life was short, Spomenko lives on in us thanks to his courage, patriotism and dignity. "And whenever we talk about Spomenko and whenever we remember his deeds, his final words to his comrades always echo in our minds: 'Be brave, don't run away from the front line, and fight as you should!' This is also a message to all of us who live in freedom in Republika Srpska today, freedom whose foundations he helped lay with his life, which had only just begun," President Dodik said. He stressed that this was not merely a message from a boy, but the dying wish of a Serb soldier, urging us to preserve Republika Srpska just as Spomenko had defended his village and his Ozren. "His words are very powerful, weighty, profound, and significant. Just as his sacrifice is a solemn pledge, so are these words a pledge to preserve Republika Srpska and to remain united in its defense, just as our brave soldiers were united - they in the trenches, and we at the negotiating table, working toward the same goal. Therefore, let us preserve Republika Srpska, because it is our home, our hearth and our legacy. Let us preserve it for Spomenko and for the many of his comrades who gave their lives to preserve what we have today. "Therefore, may they rest in eternal glory and may they rest in peace. We must never and will never forget them. The memory of Spomenko and all Serb victims lives on and will continue to live in the hearts of all of us who love and cherish Republika Srpska, life, peace and freedom," Dodik said.