VUČIĆ: CROATIAN AND BOSNIAK OFFICIALS HAVE NEVER BOWED THEIR HEADS BEFORE SERB VICTIMS

DONJI MALOVAN/KUPRES, AUGUST 4 /SRNA/ - Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said today in Donji Malovan near Kupres, from where Serbs were ethnically cleansed, that it must never be forgotten that none of the Croatian or Bosniak officials has ever bowed their heads before Serb victims.

Vučić said that Donji Malovan, Gornji Malovan and Vukovsko near Kupres are the places that suffered the most in the former Yugoslavia, stating that Serbs in that area were first killed during the Second World War by members of Jure Francetić's Black Legion, and that in 1995 Croats from the nearby village of Šuice, six kilometres away, arrived and killed and burned everything they found.

During his visit to the Serbian church in Donji Malovan, he said he was happy that, despite everything, there is no hatred among the Serbian people like the hatred he has seen among others. He said this was a good thing because hatred destroys only the person who harbours it, not the object of that hatred.

Vučić pointed out that there are now only between 250 and 300 Serbs living in the entire area of what was once Serbian Kupres. He recalled that the entire Duvnjak clan was killed in that area, that nothing is still known about the 16 missing Serb soldiers from the August 3, 1995 attack, and that all the new houses visible there are Croatian, while all the burned ones are Serbian.

He stressed that none of the Croatian officials has ever bowed their heads before these destroyed homes and mothers dressed in black, nor acknowledged that what happened to Gornji and Donji Malovan and Vukovsko was a terrible disgrace.

"They have never laid a flower on Serbian graves. Of course, we nurture a culture of remembrance, we bow our heads before their victims as well, and we do not behave like them, but never forget that none of them has bowed their head before Serbian victims," Vučić said.

The Serbian president said that time and peace are working in favour of Serbs, but that he is concerned that some others believe they will live to see the time "for the second half," stressing that Serbs must remain vigilant.

He said that the Serbian people must be the loudest in preserving regional peace, regardless of what happens, and continue to make economic progress.

"In 2014, BiH had an average salary that was 22 percent higher than Serbia's, while today Serbia is more than 20 percent ahead of BiH, and that gap will only grow. So, only peace and work... Croatia was 270 percent ahead of us, and today, when it comes to incomes, it is 40 percent ahead; we are slowly catching up," Vučić said.

The Serbian president said that the Serbian people would succeed in preserving peace.

"We will succeed because we are so strong today that no one would even think of any wars or anything similar. Some people live in the past and think that the balance of power is the same as it was in 1995 or 1992. It is thanks to the fact that the balance of power has changed drastically that we have peace, and we will continue to have it," Vučić said.

He said that Serbia would finance the construction of a parish house in Donji Malovan, a water supply system in Novo Selo, and the road to Vukovsko.

This evening, Vučić will attend the commemoration in Mrkonjić Grad marking the Day of Remembrance for those killed and expelled during the Croatian criminal Operation Storm.

The criminal Operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian Army and police, along with HVO units, in the regions of Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia, during which more than 220,000 Krajina Serbs were expelled from their ancestral homes.