BOJIĆ: REMEMBRANCE AVENUE FOR 12 BANJA LUKA BABIES BEING FORMED TODAY

BANJA LUKA, MAY 22 /SRNA/ - Director of the Republika Srpska Memorial Center Denis Bojić announced that trees will be planted today in Banja Luka's Mladen Stojanović Park and an "Avenue of the 12 Babies" will be formed as another reminder of the tragedy that occurred 34 years ago.

"A tree will be dedicated to each of our tragically deceased babies. This is a form of culture of remembrance that is very powerful, because all children who walk through the park in 20 or 30 years will have a strong reminder of each of our babies," Bojić told reporters in Banja Luka at the commemoration marking 34 years since the deaths of the 12 babies.

Mayor Draško Stanivuković said that justice for the deaths of the 12 Banja Luka babies, caused by world powers that did not allow the transport of oxygen, is slow, but that it is nevertheless coming.

"In addition to shame and remorse, people from the international community must also face legal sanctions, because they showed neither humanity nor empathy for these victims, but the opposite of that," Stanivuković said.

He announced that a memorial park dedicated to the tragically deceased Banja Luka babies will be built around the Life Memorial Monument in the city center.

Wreaths and flowers were laid today at the Life Memorial Monument in central Banja Luka marking 34 years since the deaths of 12 Banja Luka babies at the then Clinical Center, who died because world powers did not allow the transport of oxygen.

Under a United Nations Security Council decision in May and June 1992, international flights, including those carrying oxygen cylinders from Belgrade to Banja Luka, were banned, resulting in the deaths of 12 newborn babies in incubators.