OSTOJIĆ: RECIPROCITY IN COMMEMORATING WARTIME EVENTS

BIJELJINA, MARCH 21 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska Minister of Labor and Veterans’ and Disability Protection Radan Ostojić has stated today that he supports reciprocity in marking important dates from the wartime.

"What is allowed to us in the Federation of BiH should also be allowed in Republika Srpska - there must be reciprocity," Ostojić said, responding to a journalist’s question about today’s religious gathering at a Catholic cemetery in Derventa. He noted that Republika Srpska commemorates five significant dates annually in the territory of the Federation of BiH, related to suffering in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Šušnjar, Garavice, and Prebilovci, doing so in a dignified manner and in coordination between institutions. The President of the Republika Srpska Organization of Families of Captured, Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians Isidora Graorac said that all families have the moral and human right to light a candle and hold religious services in remembrance of their loved ones, while also advocating reciprocity. "Croatia has adopted a law on monuments, and Republika Srpska should adopt a similar law, because only in that way can we prevent the erection of monuments that would offend our national and personal sentiments. It is not appropriate for such monuments to be located in Republika Srpska," Graorac stressed. The President of the Organization of Families of Captured and Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica Branimir Kojić stated that no one has the right to insult Serb victims in Republika Srpska or, as he said, to behave in a provocative manner. The religious service at the site of the new Catholic cemetery in the village of Modran near Derventa passed without incident and without the display of symbols that could disturb citizens, the Doboj Police Administration said in a statement.