DODIK: DEFENSE OF SARAJEVO-ROMANIJA REGION IS THE MOST DIFFICULT AND MOST GLORIOUS CHAPTER IN HISTORY OF DEFENSIVE-PATRIOTIC WAR

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 15 /SRNA/ - The defense of the Sarajevo-Romanija region represents one of the most difficult, longest-lasting, and most glorious chapters in the history of the 1992–1995 Defensive-Patriotic War, President Milorad Dodik said.

Dodik told SRNA that the Sarajevo-Romanija region was not only a front line but also a bulwark of defense and survival for the Serbian people, as well as a symbol of the unwavering struggle for the freedom of Republika Srpska, because it was the place where Republika Srpska was preserved and defended. "A continuous struggle for survival was waged on the Sarajevo battlefield, as the fate of all of us was placed in the most difficult historical test. But thanks to courage and strong patriotic will, that test was endured by the Serbian fighters bravely, proudly, and with dignity," Dodik said. On the occasion of marking June 16 - the Day of the Defense of the Sarajevo-Romanija Region from 1992 to 1995, Dodik told SRNA that this is a very important date not only for the Sarajevo-Romanija region, but also for the entire Republika Srpska. "On that day in 1992, in an operation by Serbian fighters, the blockade was lifted, and the Lukavica–Pale transport route was established, which enabled regular supply of essential food and medical materials for the residents of the Serb-populated neighborhoods of Grbavica, Lukavica, and Srpska Ilidža, and most importantly, faster transport of wounded soldiers to the war hospital Koran in Pale and further to Serbia," Dodik said. He also recalled the importance of this date in 1995, when Muslim forces carried out one of the fiercest attacks on Serb positions on Trebević and managed to break through the defensive line at Zlatište and Osmice, which represented a significant threat and danger to the entire area and its population, but fortunately, after heavy fighting and with great sacrifice, the attack was successfully repelled. Dodik emphasized that the Sarajevo-Romanija region was never only a geographical term and a natural gem, but a unique synonym for freedom, heroism, defiance, and refuge written into the Serbian genetic code. "Whenever ‘dark days’ would descend over this area, bringing threats and dangers to our biological survival, when it seemed we were surrounded from all sides, left to ourselves, and when it appeared there was no way out or salvation, an impenetrable bulwark of defense was born in the Sarajevo-Romanija region. The fighters of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps and the people of this region did not take what belonged to others, but defended their families, homes, hearths, fields, places of worship, and the most sacred thing - the right to their identity, to remain and survive in the face of the onslaught of a rampaging mass of members of the so-called Army of BiH," Dodik said. He recalled that a continuous struggle for survival was waged on the Sarajevo battlefield, and that every meter of that region was soaked in the blood of the best among us, and that from 1992 to 1995 Serbian fighters from Romanija, Grbavica, Lukavica, Pale, Sokolac, Ilidža, Vogošća, Hadžići, Trnovo, and other areas stood on the front line defending their people and homes, as well as the entire Republika Srpska. Dodik said that under almost impossible conditions, facing numerically superior enemy forces, Serbian fighters showed exceptional courage, sacrifice, and military honor, and that thanks to their determination and bravery, hearths were preserved, the freedom of the Serbian people was defended, and the foundations of Republika Srpska were secured. "That is why today, when we look toward the Military Memorial Cemetery Novi Zejtinlik in Sokolac, where 949 fallen fighters are buried, and toward the Monastery of Saint Great Martyr George in Ravna Romanija, where on the inner walls, instead of icon paintings, the names of more than 4,000 Serbian fighters who died in the defense of the Sarajevo-Romanija region are inscribed, we do not see only the past, but the foundations on which we stand, on which we build and develop the Republic. But what we see and respect the most is the price of our freedom," Dodik pointed out. All these sacrifices, Dodik says, confirm that Republika Srpska was defended precisely in the Sarajevo-Romanija region, at the gateway to Sarajevo and on the heights of Romanija. "That sacrifice obliges us to unity when we fight different battles, those in peace, at the negotiating table, political and economic ones, when we fight for our people and for a better Republika Srpska. In those battles, we never have the right to fatigue or divisions, and especially, we have no right to betray, and must not betray, the vow of those who have passed into eternity," Dodik emphasized. He said that he will therefore always repeat that the Sarajevo-Romanija region and Istočno Sarajevo, with its municipalities Sokolac, Istočno Novo Sarajevo, Istočna Ilidža, Istočni Stari Grad, Trnovo, and Pale, are the bulwarks of defense and the cradle of Republika Srpska, and that Serbs from these areas made the greatest sacrifice in the past war - they were ethnically cleansed from Sarajevo, defended the territory, and survived exile. "That is why we today owe special gratitude to the Serbs of the Sarajevo-Romanija region, and Republika Srpska and its institutions have a special obligation toward them, because they are the most suffering people in Republika Srpska. We must continue to work, build, and develop every municipality in Istočno Sarajevo, because it is our cradle and an impenetrable bulwark," Dodik said.