KARAN: REMEMBERING CHILD VICTIMS RENEWS OUR COMMITMENT TO KEEP THEIR SUFFERING FROM BEING FORGOTTEN

BANJA LUKA, JULY 18 /SRNA/ – There are places where words are not enough to describe the scale and horrors of suffering, and Gornji Jelovac near Prijedor is one such place, Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan has stated.

Ahead of tomorrow’s commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for children killed during the genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/ from 1941 to 1945, Karan told SRNA that every child had a name, a family, took their first steps, spoke their first words and had dreams that were brutally cut short. "The Day of Remembrance for children killed during the genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma in the NDH is a day when we bow before the shadows of innocent victims and renew our commitment that their suffering will never again be left to silence and oblivion. A people that forgets its suffering risks losing the truth about itself," Karan stressed. He reminded that for decades after the Second World War, little or almost nothing was said publicly about such crimes, adding that memories of the darkest period of the 20th century were preserved mainly within families. "The truth therefore remained in the shadows for far too long, carried only through memories, while the pain of survivors remained silent, without the voice and public condemnation that the victims deserved," Karan said. He stated that preserving a culture of remembrance was therefore not only a matter of the past, but also a matter of the future and the survival of the Serbian people in these areas. "It is our duty to bear witness to the truth about the Ustasha genocidal crimes, so that we preserve the memory of the innocent and build a world in which such evil can never happen again. Today, as we speak of the innocent victims who perished in Gornji Jelovac, it is our obligation that their names, their suffering and the truth about the crime remain permanently inscribed in the collective memory of our people. We owe this to those who were killed, but also to the generations that come after us," the Republika Srpska President stated.