IVANIĆ: PROUD OF MY SON’S COURAGE AND HIS DECISION TO DEFEND SRPSKA AND OUR PEOPLE

BANJA LUKA, JULY 31 /SRNA/ – Slavka Ivanić, the mother of fallen Republika Srpska Army /RSA/ soldier Darko Ivanić, said in her testimony to the Memorial Centre of Republika Srpska that she is proud of her son's courage and his decision to stay and defend Republika Srpska and the Serb people.

"My son Darko volunteered to join the Republika Srpska Army. He was stationed on Mount Vlašić, later in Čović Polje, where he was killed in 1993," Ivanić told SRNA. She said that Darko had emigrated to Italy in 1989, just before the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, in search of work and better living conditions. "However, despite having the chance to stay abroad, he decided to return. ‘I do not want to be a coward and betray my comrades,’ Darko told the family, firmly expressing his intent to stand with his people and defend what he saw as his own – Republika Srpska," his mother Slavka recalled. She shared that in the spring of 1994, she dreamed of Darko wearing a military uniform and carrying bricks in a truck. When she asked him in the dream whether he had asked his father for permission, he smiled and replied, "Why ask, Mom? It’s mine anyway." "That’s when I decided to build a chapel next to the cemetery. By the first anniversary of Darko’s death, the chapel had been roofed and consecrated. Every year on Saint Demetrius Day, a memorial service is held in the chapel," Slavka said. After the war, Slavka endured two more great tragedies – in 2014, she lost her husband Dragutin, and shortly afterward, her second son Duško, leaving her completely alone. Denis Bojić, director of the Memorial Centre of Republika Srpska, says that such testimonies are an important contribution to preserving the collective memory of the suffering and sacrifice of the Serb people in the Defensive-Patriotic War. He states the Memorial Centre, in cooperation with the municipality of Čelinac and the Čelinac War Veterans Organisation, is beginning to record testimonies in that municipality as well. The Memorial Centre of Republika Srpska calls on all family members of fallen or missing civilians and soldiers from the Defensive-Patriotic War to share their testimony, thereby permanently preserving the memory of their loved ones. Anyone wishing to provide a testimony can contact the Memorial Centre via email at: komunikacije@mcrs.vladars.rs or by phone: 051/222-999.