DODIK: KOZARA - SYNONYM FOR SUFFERING

MRAKOVICA, JUNE 29 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said that Kozara is a synonym for suffering, a place of identity where Serbs refused to be diminished, converted, or expelled.

"Kozara has become a symbol of the successful struggle of the Serbian people, and even when the communists described it as a fight against fascism, it was a fight for the very survival of the Serbian people in this region," Dodik said in his address at a ceremony marking the 83rd anniversary of the Battle of Kozara. He noted that the facts show Serbs participated in the Partisan movement and raised uprisings wherever they lived. “Serbs rose against injustice and crimes that took place from the very beginning,” Dodik said, reminding that the Ustaše’s state plan was to convert, kill, and expel the Serbian people. He noted that he recently visited Brod na Drini, where the Serbian people from Romanija suffered at the hands of Francetić’s Ustaše. Few know that Tito refused to receive that group and protect them from Francetić’s Ustaše, so the group moved down the Drina River, and 6,000 people were killed then, Dodik emphasized, also recalling other mass Serbian sufferings.