CALL TO GATHER IN DONJA GRADINA ON SUNDAY AND PAY TRIBUTE TO MURDERED SERBS

BELGRADE, APRIL 15 /SRNA/ – The Ustasha-governed concentration camp Jasenovac was a concentration of evil against the Serb people, therefore it is extremely important that Serbs gather in large numbers in Donja Gradina on Sunday, April 19, on the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Ustasha genocide crimes, ensuring justice for the victims, said SNSD leader Milorad Dodik.

"I call on all people to come in large numbers, because only our gathering in such sites will not allow this falling into oblivion. These were monstrous crimes," Dodik told the press in Belgrade after attending a meeting between Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić and the leadership of Republika Srpska with the top leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbia's Armed Forces. Dodik expressed satisfaction that Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić will attend the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance in Donja Gradina, along with many people from Serbia, as well as the envoy of US President Donald Trump, the Russian ambassador, officials of Republika Srpska, representatives of the Serb people from the region, as well as representatives of Jewish communities, and the guests from Israel. "We are historical brothers in suffering of the Jewish people. We believe that Israel has the right to its struggle for a secure future and that everything it undertakes in that regard is absolutely justified from our standpoint," he said. Dodik says the upcoming gathering will be an opportunity to speak more than before about many issues and to once again place on the agenda the construction of a memorial complex in memory of the victims in Donja Gradina. "That is difficult process, materials need to be collected; it is not just about building a facility there, it must be a presentation that leaves a historical impression of the events that took place there," he noted. Dodik said that for the Serb people, Jasenovac is a painful memory of suffering and a concentration of evil that occurred at that site by Croatian and Muslim Ustasha forces, under the patronage of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. He pointed out that the most dramatic, inhumane, and uncivilized fact was that within the Jasenovac camp system there was a children’s camp, where they were killed, forcibly converted to Catholicism, or otherwise separated from the Serb identity. "That is a painful fact for us," Dodik stressed. While noting that there were victims on all sides, Dodik said that Jasenovac was a concentration of evil that lasted four years, whuch no one stopped, neither the communists nor the Allies, which proves it was in some way allowed to be carried out against Serbs at that time, which is tragic. Dodik also warned about the present time and attempts to revise history, and about false narratives against Serbs and Russians, who liberated Europe from fascism.