DODIK: STARI BROD IS A PLACE WHERE SILENCE AND CRIES OF SERB VICTIMS SIMULTANEOUSLY ECHO

BANJA LUKA, MARCH 22 /SRNA/ - The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, points out that nowhere in the world is there a place like Stari Brod on the Drina, where on the Orthodox holiday of Mladenci in 1942, 326 girls held hands and jumped into the icy Drina, deciding that it was better to die than to fall into the hands of the Ustashas, beasts in human form, and their daggers.

"Those young girls were accepted by the Drina, where they found their peace and tranquility, fleeing from the Ustasha, headed by Juro Francetić, who killed more than 6,000 unarmed Serbs in this massacre, exclusively civilians, women, children, and the elderly. Like the unfortunate girls, many of these martyrs sought salvation in the embrace of the cold waves, fleeing from the Ustasha dagger and the knife of the rampaging Ustasha," Dodik pointed out for SRNA on the occasion of the 83rd anniversary of the Stari Brod crime.

The president of Srpska pointed out that the massacre of these innocent people, whose only guilt was being a Serb, was committed three times - the first time by the Ustasha, the second time when Josip Broz, who was in Foča at the time, did not want to help the Serb refugees fleeing towards Stari Brod in the hope of reaching free territory, and the third time - when the communist government hid this crime from the public eye all these years in order to preserve the al leged false brotherhood and unity in Yugoslavia, but only over Serbs’ back.

He pointed out that without Republika Srpska, this horrible bloody feast would remain hidden from the public eye, adding that this is one of a series of examples that confirms the importance and justification of Republika Srpska's fight for its survival and the preservation of its institutions, which Sarajevo, together with internationals, especially the German evildoer Christiam Schmidt, are persistently watching over with the desire to rob us of everything and turn us into an empty shell that would be worthless.

He has reminded that in memory of these Serb martyrs in Stari Brod, on the banks of the Drina, a memorial museum was built with carved names and surnames of the victims, where it can be seen that entire families found their eternal home in the Drina, having suffered at the hands of evildoers.

"Even today, when you come to that place of suffering, the silence echoes being interrupted by the cry of a child, the screams of petrified mothers, sisters, fathers... Nowhere else can the silence and screams be 'heard' simultaneously as in Stari Brod," emphasized Dodik.

He pointed out that this crime is permanently witnessed by the names engraved on the stone wall of the Memorial Museum, almost 6,000 of them, and in the water sculptures of - a petrified baby in the arms of a petrified mother turned onto stone, the petrified "cry" of a mother from the shore who watches her daughter jump from a rock into the icy Drina and disappear in the waves, taking all her girlhood dreams with her, a petrified father with a child who has not yet known life, but unfortunately, too soon recognized human evil and brutality...

"There is also a message to us, their descendants, but also to future generations, which is engraved on the monument on the bank of the river: 'Forgive us, you who suffered here and for 66 years we kept silent about you. However, we have not forgotten you because such wounds in the heart never heal. We have forgiven the criminals, may their faces be black before God's light!'

The truth about this crime has finally seen the light of day, thanks to the fact that we have our Republic, no more hiding, there are no more Josips who can hide the crime against the Serb people. We will talk about it every day, our children will learn about it in schools, visit the places of suffering and we will not allow our victims to be hidden, secret, because we would be ones to blame and would be no better than those who killed them and those who hid them all these years," said the president of Srpska.

He pointed out that Stari Brod is another lesson for the Serb people, which we must remember and keep from forgetting every single name and every single one of our victims.

"We are a small nation, but we have made a great sacrifice in all wars, which is why we must preserve the truth and cherish the culture of remembrance. Because if we forget, it can happen again, as it happened in the past civil war in BiH," concluded the president of the Republic.

In the spring of 1942, ten thousand Ustashas left Sarajevo with the intention of expelling and killing the Serb population. The Serb people from the areas of Sarajevo, Pale, Olovo, Kladanj, Han Pijesak, Rogatica, Sokolac and Višegrad fled down the Drina to seek salvation in Serbia.

In Višegrad, the Italian army did not allow the people to cross the bridge and the fugitives headed along the Drina towards the villages of Miloševići and Stari Brod, where the ferry was located.

The Ustashas cought up with the refuge and brutally killed around 6,000 Serb women, children and the elderly. This is one of the biggest massacres of Serbs committed by the Ustasha in Stari Brod on the Orthodox holiday of Mladenci in 1942.