DODIK: LAND CAN BE TAKEN AWAY, HOUSE DESTROYED, BUT HOMELAND LIVES AS LONG AS IT IS CARRIED IN ONE’S HEART

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 10 /SRNA/ – The aim of the aggression against 13 municipalities in the western Krajina region carried out in September and October 1995 by the Croatian Army and the so-called Army of BiH was the extermination of the Serb people, with the clear intention of ethnically cleansing the area of Serbs, President Milorad Dodik stated.

"More than three decades have passed, 31 years to be precise, since the homelands in western Krajina fell silent, not by the will of their Serb residents, but under the weight of a fate written in those days by persecution and the weapons of criminals.

Three armies turned against the Serb people, including the NATO alliance members, who assisted the aggressors with unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites," Dodik told SRNA on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the aggression against 13 municipalities in western Krajina in September and October 1995 by the combined forces of the Croatian Army and the so-called Army of BiH, supported by NATO operations.

Dodik said that these 13 municipalities represent 13 enduring testimonies to suffering, countless lives extinguished, homes destroyed, and destinies cut short. However, for all Serbs born there, western Krajina was not merely a mark on a map or a geographical term, but a home, a family hearth, and a land where roots and ancestors reach further back than memory itself.

"In those days, the convoys of people carried more than bundles of belongings; they carried centuries of history, memories, and recollections of ancestors who had defended and protected that same land, as well as a silent cry for help drowned out by the roar of artillery. Houses stood abandoned, doors remained open, and the roads people had walked for centuries suddenly became paths of no return, leading far away from their family hearths and homes.

The Sarajevo Serbs experienced a similar fate somewhat later, during the winter, when they too left their defended homes and set off into the unknown. Another exodus, another ethnic cleansing befell the Serb people, whom those same people who expelled them now call aggressors and criminals, attaching all kinds of labels to them," Dodik stressed.

He said that even today, 31 years later, every abandoned house and every home lives on in stories told to children and grandchildren, in every sigh, and in every tear that quietly rolls down a cheek when the names of Petrovac, Drvar, Glamoč, Grahovo, Ključ, Sanski Most, Mrkonjić Grad, and other places are mentioned.

"Although time moves relentlessly forward, the memory of the victims and everything we have lost remains a solemn pledge. A land can be occupied and seized, houses can be demolished, people can be scattered, but homeland lives as long as it is carried in one’s hears.

Some other people walk through western Krajina today, but its soul lives on in every Serb, in our memories and prayers and the eternal pride we feel in who we are. Thirty-one years is not the end, but merely proof of how sacred our Serb land is to us and how deeply it continues to live within us," Dodik said.

Dodik stressed that today, three decades later, it is our duty to remember, to pay tribute to all those who lost their innocent lives, to speak their names, and to tell their families that they have not been forgotten.

"Remembering the victims preserves dignity, upholds the truth, and helps future generations understand the price of peace and the importance of freedom. Our remembrance is not a desire for revenge, but an obligation to ensure that crimes are never justified, that the victims’ suffering is never diminished, and that their pain is never erased from history.

Throughout the centuries, the Serb people has borne heavy crosses of suffering, yet has preserved what matters most - the faith, name, language, alphabet, and love for family hearths. Today, too, before the shadows of those who are no longer with us, we promise to protect our homes, pass the truth on to our children and grandchildren, and honour the memory of all innocent Serb victims with dignity. This is an obligation shared by the entire Republika Srpska and its institutions, which must never accept forgetting," Dodik said.

He emphasized that the Serb people seeks truth, justice, and dignity for all Serbs who lost their innocent lives - for those who are no longer with us, their families, our descendants, our right to know, remember, and speak freely about the Serb people’s tragedy.

"Thirty-one years of pain have passed, 31 years of remembrance, and 31 years of waiting for justice. The question remains whether the BIh judiciary will ever explain why this case has not been given the highest possible priority, why Serb victims are considered less worthy, and for how much longer this will continue. Why is a Serb mother’s tear considered less valuable, why do criminals walk freely, and why is no one held accountable for the mass crimes and ethnic cleansing of the Serb people?" Dodik said.

Perhaps we will receive answers to these questions one day, Dodik said. However, what remains and what is our eternal duty and obligation, is to ensure that forgetting never triumphs over remembrance, because whenever we have forgotten, crimes have been repeated, and we have once again become victims of the descendants of cutthroats and criminals.

"We must never again allow ourselves to take that risk, or must we allow Mrkonjić Grad, Sarajevo, Podrinje, Brod na Drini, Prebilovci, or the numerous pits where the remains of Serbia’s finest sons and daughters lie buried to happen again," Dodik declared.

Today, Mrkonjić Grad will commemorate the 31st anniversary of the offensive against 13 municipalities in western Krajina and the crimes committed against 2,214 Serb civilians and soldiers by members of the Croatian armed forces and the so-called Army of BiH. Despite extensive evidence, no one has been adequately punished for these crimes.

The combined forces of the Croatian Army, the Croatian Defence Council /HVO/, and the so-called Army of BiH, supported by NATO operations, launched the offensive against 13 municipalities in western Krajina in September and October 1995.

The offensive targeted the municipalities of Grahovo, Glamoč, Kupres, Šipovo, Srbobran, Jajce, Ripač, Drvar, Petrovac, Ključ, Krupa na Uni, Sanski Most, and Mrkonjić Grad.

According to data of the Republika Srpska Research Centre of War, War Crimes and Tracing Missing Persons, 2,214 people of Serb ethnic background were killed during the offensive, 120,000 Serbs were expelled from their centuries-old homes, movable property was looted, while immovable property was destroyed.

Among those killed were 753 Serb civilians, 149 of whom are listed as missing, as well as 1,461 members of the Republika Srpska Army, 79 of whom are still listed as missing.

The largest mass grave discovered in the area was found in the Orthodox cemetery in Mrkonjić Grad, where 181 bodies were exhumed.