DODIK: EVEN CHURCH BELLS FELL SILENT IN BRADINA

BANJA LUKA, MAY 23 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik emphasized that Bradina is a place where, after the recent civil war, mass killings, and ethnic cleansing of Serbs, even the church bells have fallen silent.

On the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the horrific crime against Serbian civilians in Bradina, committed by members of Muslim forces, President Dodik told SRNA that before the war, the village had 280 Serbian households with about 1,200 inhabitants, but today it is nothing but desolation.

Dodik reminded that this is yet another in a series of crimes against Serbs that were planned, organized, and executed, and, as has become common practice when it comes to the suffering of the Serbian people, without any judicial resolution.

"Surrounding Serbian villages in the Konjic area were also destroyed, but Bradina has been and remains a symbol of Serbian suffering both during World War II and the recent civil war in BiH. On that tragic and bloody day, May 25, 1992, 48 Serbian civilians were brutally killed, five rapes were committed, and hundreds of Serbs were taken to camps, most of them to Čelebići and Musala, where they were tortured and abused, and many ultimately perished in those places of torment," Dodik emphasized.

The President of Republika Srpska says that it is clear they were killed only because they were Serbs. After all, why would civilians be targeted? What wrong did the 14-year-old Srđan Žuža, the youngest victim of this massacre, or 85-year-old Vukosava, an elderly woman, do wrong? “Their only sin was the fact that they were Serbs,” Dodik said.

He also noted that during the attack on Bradina, the Church of the Holy Ascension of Christ, built in 1938, was set on fire.

"Thanks to the will of good people, former residents of this village who managed to escape the massacre and now live in exile, the church has been restored. This church remains the only witness that Bradina was, for centuries, a home of Serbs in this area.

Unfortunately, liturgy is held only once a year because there are no longer any Serbs in Bradina, nor anyone to hear the church bells. Sadly, there are no weddings, no breaking of the traditional Slava breads, and no baptisms. Every trace of Serbian existence has been destroyed,” Dodik emphasized.

Despite all the evidence and facts held by the institutions of Republika Srpska, President Dodik said that unconstitutional judicial institutions continue to conceal the crimes because they are not moved by Serbian tears, nor do they recognize Serbian victims as true victims.

"We will continue to nurture the culture of remembrance and will never forget our victims or the acts of brutal torture, because forgetting is nothing less than killing our people all over again. We must never allow that, nor give up on insisting that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

It is also our moral and Christian duty to pass on to future generations the truth about the suffering of our fellow countrymen, because the time will come when the criminals will be punished, and even if they escape earthly justice, they will certainly not escape God’s," said the President of Republika Srpska.

The 33rd anniversary of the destruction and burning of the village of Bradina and the surrounding villages will be marked on Sunday in this village near Konjic. During these events, members of the Muslim and Croatian forces brutally killed 48 Serbian civilians.