CVIJANOVIĆ: LET UNITY BE A DEFEAT TO THE DEVIL!

BANJA LUKA, MAY 12 /SRNA/ - Serb Member and Chairwoman of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović points out that history teaches us that unity was and remains the strongest guarantee of our survival, which is exactly why they are trying in every way to divide us and make us quarrel.

"We must resist this in order to defend Republika Srpska in peace today, with political means," Cvijanović said in her address at the main ceremony in the Banja Luka-based Kozara barracks on the occasion of the Day of the Republika Srpska Army and the Third Infantry /Republika Srpska/ Regiment of the Armed Forces of BiH.

SRNA fully reports the speech of the Serb member and Chairwoman of the BiH Presidency:

"Today 33 years ago, the famous Army of Republika Srpska was formed. The decision to form it was a reflection of the unwavering will of the Serb people to stay and survive at their venturies-old homes.

This decision was a historic NO to the new Jasenovac, Prebilovci, Garavice, Drakulić, Stari Brod na Drini and numerous other execution sites. It was NO to the new genocide, death camps and bottomless pits of the dark period of the NDH.

On that day, the descendants of the martyrs gathered under our tricolor, leaving behind all ideological, political and other divisions.

The Republika Srpska Army was a people's army, of ordinary and honest people, who, defending the borders of our Republic, defended their doorstep, their homeland, their families and neighbours, churches and graves.

They wanted to live in peace and freedom, which was attempted to be taken away from us on the ruins of the former state, but the attempt failed thanks to the heroic struggle of the best sons of Republika Srpska.

The force that threatened us was great, but even greater was the holy place being defended.

Many of them laid their lives in the foundations of Republika Srpska and they are the most deserving of the freedom they won with their comrades.

We are obliged to remember them with special reverence not as numbers and statistical categories, but as befits heroes - as fathers and sons, brothers and cousins, neighbours and friends, as human beings who had their own families, lives, jobs, everyday joys and worries.

By preserving the memory of them and taking care of their families and wounded comrades, we preserve the foundations of Republika Srpska, which is why it is our sacred duty.

Many soldiers of the Republika Srpska Army do not live easily, and it is our duty not to forget them and to make their everyday life burdened by numerous worries easier for them and their families as a society. I am grateful to the institutions and the Government of Republika Srpska, who took and are taking care special care of them.

Politically, Republika Srpska is facing numerous challenges today, perhaps the biggest since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. As during the Defensive-Patriotic War, today we desperately need the unity of the people and institutions that have been brutally attacked from Sarajevo and certain foreign addresses.

History teaches us that the unity was and remains the strongest guarantee of our survival, which is exactly why they are trying in every way to divide us and make us quarrel. We must resist this in order to defend Republika Srpska in peace today, by political means.

Republika Srpska has more friends and allies in the world today than ever in the past, both in the East and increasingly in the West.

Peace in our mutual home, Republika Srpska, is the best guarantee that we will preserve it in order to keep developing and improving it. I am convinced that we will succeed in this!

Serb members of the Armed Forces of BiH, in addition to their professional tasks that they perform within the service, simultaneously represent the voice of Republika Srpska, as well as the tradition of the Republika Srpska Army.

At the very end, allow me to congratulate all our soldiers and members of the Third Infantry Republika Srpska Regiment, who inherit its glory, on Republika Srpska Army Day! Let unity be a defeat to the devil! Long live Republika Srpska!

May the memory of its heroic army live on! God Help."