DODIK: AIR ABOVE ISTOČNO SARAJEVO FOREVER CARRIES SORROW FOR INTERRUPTED CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER

BANJA LUKA, MARCH 10 /SRNA/ - SNSD president Milorad Dodik told SRNA that there are places where silence is not the absence of sound but the presence of pain for which there are no words, and such silence exists in Istočno Sarajevo at the mere mention of the 118 innocent Serb children who, he said, were brutally, coldly, and ruthlessly killed by members of the Muslim army from Sarajevo.

"The air above this city carries every day the sorrow for interrupted children's laughter, childhood, school duties, games of elastics and ball, ended by the cruel hand of war, criminally and mercilessly. They were not military targets or soldiers, but innocent children whose pure, sincere, and carefree laughter in the rare moments of ceasefire `disturbed` the sound of shells and the rain of bullets, and whose only `fortresses` were parks and whose `weapons` were wooden toys," Dodik emphasized.

On the occasion of marking March 11, the Day of Remembrance for the killed children of Serbian Sarajevo, when the girls Nataša Učur /10/ and Milica Lalović /11/ were killed by a sniper shot, and whose tragic fates became a symbol of the suffering of children in the Sarajevo-Romanija Region, the president of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik, stressed in a statement to SRNA that the suffering of children in Serbian Sarajevo is not merely a statistic on paper with 118 names. It is an empty chair at the family lunch table, at the Slava table, an empty children’s room that never became the room of an elementary school pupil, a secondary school student, or a university student.

"Today we especially remember our Milica and Nataša, who have become symbols of all our angels. Their play in the Grbavica neighbourhood, which at the time belonged to Serbian Sarajevo, was cut short at the moment when they should have been dreaming about the future. It was not enough that their childhood was marked by war; in that bloody war, they also lost the lives that had only just begun, lives that were prematurely woven into the foundations of Republika Srpska," Dodik emphasized.

The SNSD leader emphasized that the 118 Milicas and Natašas are our eternal reminder that evil does not choose its victims, that the criminal’s hand did not tremble when aiming a sniper rifle at two playful girls, and that their great sacrifice must never be forgotten.

He added that the memorial in the courtyard of Elementary School Saint Sava in Istočno Novo Sarajevo stands as a stone embrace for all the children who were killed. Every time we pass by it, he said, we are obliged to pause, not only because of sorrow, but because of a promise that we will build a city in which children will play and learn freely, sleep peacefully, and where we will never allow their sacrifice to fade from memory and from history.

"Our little angels will never leave this city, because their young lives are built into every stone of it, stones that were soaked with their blood and purity," said Milorad Dodik.

He emphasized that being a patriot involves loving this land as those children did - innocently, purely, and without reservation. However, in their innocence, they could not fathom that their playful moments would become their last memories, while the villains responsible for these acts would remain unpunished.

"That is why it is our sacred duty to keep telling the story of these small yet great heroes to the generations to come, and for every child who today walks freely through the streets, not only of Istočno Sarajevo, but of every local community in Republika Srpska, to know that they owe that freedom to those who gave their childhood as the foundation of Srpska," emphasized the president of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik.

Dodik said that along with Republika Srpska, these 118 innocent souls will also live on, children who were targeted by miserable villains, cowards, and monsters, and that they will live forever in every child’s step, smile, first spoken word, in every school bell, and in every heart that beats for Istočno Sarajevo and Republika Srpska.

A memorial service for the children of Serbian Sarajevo who were killed from 1992 to 1995 will be held tomorrow in the presence of the victims' family members, guests, pupils, and teachers, and wreaths will be laid at the memorial.