ĆOSIĆ: BRATUNAC IS PLACE WHERE RESPECT MUST BE PAID TO SERB VICTIMS

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 29 /SRNA/ – The President of the Association of Municipalities and Cities of Republika Srpska Ljubiša Ćosić said that Bratunac is a place where, in silence and with respect, tribute must be paid to all Serb civilian and military victims who, as he stated, were killed only because they were Serbs, stressing that preserving the culture of remembrance is a lasting commitment of every Serb.

Ćosić said that the scale of what he described as the atrocities committed against Serb soldiers and civilians in the Middle Podrinje and Birač region during the past war can be compared to the crimes described by Serbian Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić in his works, as well as to Ustasha crimes in Miloševac and Stari Brod during World War II. He said that all local communities in Republika Srpska have an obligation to equally and in solidarity remember all Serb suffering and every victim, including those from the Middle Podrinje and Birač region. Ćosić stressed that the 3,267 Serb soldiers and civilians killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač region during the Defense-Homeland War obligate remembrance not only on the first Saturday in July, but every day of the year. "There is no municipality or city in Republika Srpska where the Serb people have not suffered, both in the Homeland-Defense War and in other conflicts in the 20th century," Ćosić said in Banja Luka after the meeting between Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan and representatives of institutions and organizations regarding the commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the suffering of Serbs in the Middle Podrinje and Birač region /1992–1995/. Ćosić, also the mayor of Istočno Sarajevo, called on all local government leaders to send their representatives and urged citizens to attend the commemoration in Bratunac on Saturday, July 4. A memorial service for the 3,267 Serb soldiers and civilians killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač region during the Homeland-Defense War will be held in Bratunac on Saturday, July 4.