COMMEMORATING 34 YEARS SINCE SUFFERING OF CENTRAL PODRINJE AND BIRAČ SERBS

BRATUNAC, JULY 4 /SRNA/ – The central commemoration marking the suffering of 3,267 Serbs from the Central Podrinje and Birač region between 1992 and 1995 will be held today in Bratunac, in the presence of the top officials of Republika Srpska and His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia.

The commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the crimes committed against the Serbs of this region will be attended, among others, by Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan, Prime Minister Savo Minić, and Republika Srpska Minister of Labour, War Veterans and Disabled Persons Protection Radan Ostojić. The programme will begin with a Divine Hierarchical Liturgy that will be served by Patriarch Porfirije in the churchyard of the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. The patriarch is scheduled to arrive at the church at 9:00 a.m., after which the Divine Hierarchical Liturgy will begin. The liturgy will be officiated by Patriarch Porfirije, concelebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Hrizostom of Dabar-Bosnia and several bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church. At 11:30 a.m., a religious procession will depart from the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos to the Bratunac municipal and military cemetery. At noon, a memorial service for the killed civilians and soldiers from the Central Podrinje and Birač region will be held at the cemetery in Bratunac, followed by an address by Patriarch Porfirije and speeches by officials from Republika Srpska and Serbia. The laying of flowers and wreaths at the memorial cross in the Bratunac cemetery will follow. The tribute will be paid to all Serb victims from the Central Podrinje and Birač region killed during the Defensive-Patriotic War that is being organised to mark the 34th anniversary of the major suffering of Serbs on St. Peter's Day in 1992 in villages around Srebrenica and Bratunac, when 69 soldiers and civilians were killed, while 22 people were captured, none of whom survived. This year's commemorative programme moto is "One Is Not Invited to Bratunac – One Goes to Bratunac". Muslim units from Srebrenica were frequently attacking Serb villages during the Defensive-Patriotic War on major Orthodox religious holidays. On St. Peter's Day in 1992, they committed crimes in the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase and Zagoni, where they killed everyone they encountered and looted and burned Serb-owned property. That was the continuation of a campaign of continuous ethnic cleansing that began in April of that year aimed at erasing all traces of the presence of Serbs in the area as besides killing and expelling the civilian population and destroying property, Serb cemeteries and places of worship were being destroyed. Throughout 1992, Muslim units attacked Serb-populated villages, killing people and destroying everything that belonged to the Serbs. In order to protect the Serb population of the Central Podrinje region from destruction, the Republika Srpska Army launched a counteroffensive in the spring of 1993. However, Srebrenica was not captured at that time because of the international community’s intervention, which declared the then Muslim-held enclave a UN-protected demilitarized zone. The Muslim command prepared military operations while using the protection of international peacekeeping forces /UNPROFOR/ and organised attacks on Serb-controlled positions, particularly in 1995, when strong forces from the protected zone launched an attack on the Main Staff headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army in Crna Rijeka near Han Pijesak. The attack was repelled and the capture of Srebrenica followed shortly afterward, after which the town became part of the constitutional and legal order of Republika Srpska in July 1995.