ŽIVKOVIĆ-RAJILIĆ: GENOCIDE COMMITTED AGAINST SERBS IN PODRINJE AND BIRAČ

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 29 /SRNA/ - The President of the Association of Women Victims of War of Republika Srpska Božica Živković-Rajilić, stated that a genocide was committed against more than 3,000 Serbs in Middle Podrinje and Birač, and that no one has been held accountable for the heinous crimes, nor are any serious legal proceedings underway.

"It is unacceptable that even after more than three decades, no one has answered for the crime, pogrom, suffering, murders, torture of the Serbian people, and the burning of Serbian property in the area of Middle Podrinje and Birač," Živković-Rajilić said on the occasion of the upcoming commemoration of 34 years since the suffering of Serbs in this region. According to her, the Serb people were killed by Muslim hordes of bloodthirsty killers who did not care whether their victims were children, women, or the elderly in their eighties and nineties. "Muslims committed evil in the most brutal way, and they were supported by foreigners, who are a hotbed of fascism, by turning their heads and not reacting to the crime. No one has answered for these crimes, nor are any serious legal proceedings underway. For the much smaller suffering of Muslims in the unfortunate war, an uproar was raised and it reached the Hague Tribunal," Živković-Rajilić pointed out. Živković-Rajilić concluded that the memorial for the slain Serbs in Middle Podrinje and Birač must be maintained and remembered, and that injustice must not be allowed to be the measure for Serbian victims. A memorial service for the 3,267 fallen Serbian soldiers and civilians from the Middle Podrinje and Birač area in the Defense-Patriotic War will be held on Saturday, July 4, in Bratunac. During the Defense-Patriotic War, Muslim units from Srebrenica most often attacked Serbian villages on major Orthodox holidays. On St. Peter's Day in 1992, they attacked the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase, and Zagoni, killing everyone they could reach, looting, and burning Serbian property.