ORGANIZATION OF SENIOR OFFICERS OF RSA PRESENTS NEW PUBLICATIONS

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 27 /SRNA/ - The Organization of Senior Officers of the Army of Republika Srpska /RSA/ presented the collection of papers "Defense of the Southern Borders of Republika Srpska" and the book "22nd Infantry Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska" by Boško Peulić at the International Book Fair in Belgrade.

The President of the Association of Senior Officers of the RSA, Slobodan Župljanin, said these publications also fit into the organization's three strategic goals, the first of which is strengthening and expanding the front of patriotic forces to defend the values won in the Defensive-Patriotic War and to defend the interests of Srpska.

"The second goal is nurturing tradition and patriotism, and the third is the constant search for the truth about the events of the Defensive-Patriotic War, so that what enemies say about Serbs and Republika Srpska does not one day become the accepted truth," Župljanin said.

He added that these are the main reasons why the organization is taking part in the Belgrade Book Fair.

"We are giving the public the chance to learn from direct participants what happened during the war and how. We must pass the truth on to younger generations, because the generations that took part in the war are disappearing. It would be a big mistake not to pass on everything that matters to the young and encourage them to preserve both Republika Srpska and Serbia," Župljanin said.

Colonel Miodrag Novokmet explained that one way to pass on experience is by writing monographs and collections of papers on wartime units and brigades.

"We spent six months preparing the collection of papers on the defense of Republika Srpska's southern borders and, through painstaking work, gathered 20 papers by eminent officers, history professors and experts who wrote about the wartime operations of our units in the socio-political circumstances of the time," Novokmet said.

He said the collection gives a comprehensive overview of the situation in Herzegovina, which in 1992, after the JNA withdrew, was left alone and undefended, with a small population.

"From 1993 it was also cut off from the rest of Srpska, so its position was very difficult, but we endured it all, and now we are proud to have Republika Srpska and a unified territory," Novokmet said.

The publications were presented in the Borislav Pekić Hall.