DODIK: SERB PEOPLE HONOURS THEIR OWN VICTIMS, BUT ALSO THE VICTIMS OF OTHERS

MRKONJIĆ GRAD, AUGUST 4 /SRNA/ – President Milorad Dodik said this evening in Mrkonjić Grad that the Serb people is proud, mourns and honours their own victims, but also respects the victims of other peoples.

Dodik stressed the Serb people’s greatness lies in the fact that they respect others, while others have never shown the same respect for Serb victims.

"This is not an ordinary date, nor is it merely a ceremonial occasion. It is a moment when we speak the truth," Dodik said in his address at the central commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for Serbs Killed and Expelled during the 1995 Croatian-Muslim pogrom against Serbs from Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska.

He recalled that 11 years ago Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić and he agreed that Republika Srpska and Serbia would jointly commemorate dates marking both the suffering and the victories of the Serb people throughout history.

"The first such commemoration was dedicated to the remembrance of the exodus and the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia and Republika Srpska," Dodik said.

He further stated that Croatia had committed aggression against Republika Srpska by carrying out a pogrom and massacre of the Serb people.

"Croatia that we remember here as the 'Independent State' left behind Jasenovac and many other execution sites where nearly one million Serb victims perished," Dodik said.

He added that there is scarcely a day without a memorial service being held for Serb victims.

"What do you want from us? Why do you think you can keep humiliating Republika Srpska and Serbia forever? Or that through your European story you can tell us the story you want, subjugate us again, and say - Yes, you may join the EU, but only if we say so. We do not need that kind of EU or Europe," Dodik said.

He noted that American experts had organized Operation Storm, which had been approved at the highest levels of the United States government at the time.

"They had only one condition - that it be carried out quickly so there would be no international reaction. That is exactly what they did. They carried out genocide and ethnic cleansing, and their propaganda from that period left behind the narrative that the Serbs were responsible," Dodik said.

He also criticized Montenegro's leadership, which claim there was genocide in Srebrenica, they go to Croatia and stand alongside those who killed children, women and civilians from Republika Srpska Krajina.

"I love Montenegro for my own reasons. But I do not love it as it is today - betraying. Some may say I am interfering, but they interfere in our pain; they are driving a knife directly into our hearts," Dodik said.

He further said that Croatia has not allowed Serbs to return freely to their homes, but arrests and prosecutes them instead, whenever possible.

"There is no trust. Only the naïve believe otherwise. That is why our only rightful path is Serbia and Republika Srpska. We have no other direction," Dodik said.

He pledged that he would speak about these issues again next year and that he would neither stop nor give up.

Dodik also thanked the Serbian Orthodox Church for preserving the Orthodox faith, the alphabet, the Serbian language, and the Serb people.