GOGANOVIĆ: COURAGEOUS AND HISTORICAL DECISION ON SRPSKA ARMY FORMATION

BANJA LUKA, MAY 12 /SRNA/ - Deputy Minister of Defence in the Council of Ministers Aleksandar Goganović said that the 1992 decision of the Republika Srpska National Assembly on the formation of the Republika Srpska Army /RSA/ was brave and historic.

"The Army of Republika Srpska had the task of defending the territory of Republika Srpska and the Serb people at its centuries-old homes," Goganović said at the main ceremony marking the RSA Day.

He emphasized that the Srpska Army was created as an expression of the desire of the Serb people and the then leadership of Republika Srpska to protect themselves from those who intended to build the future on the foundations of the suffering of Serbs, denying the right of the Serbs to decide their own destiny.

Goganović said that the celebration of RSA Day is an opportunity to remember fallen soldiers, members of the Srpska Army and civilian victims of the war, who gave the most valuable thing they had for Srpska - their lives, so that today the Serb people could live in peace and freedom.

"Their sacrifice obliges us to remember them and repay them by protecting and defending our Republika Srpska," concluded Goganović.

The RSA was formed on May 12, 1992, which at the end of the Defensive - Patriotic War, had 210,000 soldiers. According to the data of the Republic Research Centre on War, War Crimes and Tracing Missing Persons, 23,659 soldiers were killed.

After 14 years of existence, the Army of Republika Srpska joined the Armed Forces of BiH, where its military heritage and identity is nurtured by the Third Infantry /Republika Srpska/ Regiment.