GRAORAC: SERB SUFFERING MUST BE PERMANENTLY REMEMBERED

BANJA LUKA, MAY 19 /SRNA/ - President of the Republic Organization of Families of Captured, Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians Isidora Graorac said that the suffering of the Serb people must remain permanently remembered, noting that 23,659 soldiers' lives are built into the foundations of Republika Srpska.

"Every family that gave testimony in Banja Luka, Srbac, Bosanski Brod, Novi Grad, Doboj, Derventa, Bijeljina, Zvornik, Bratunac, Srebrenica, Istočno Sarajevo, Nevesinje, and Mrkonjić Grad and other places wants the voices of survivors to be heard about those who did not survive, so that through their stories the terrible consequences of war can be understood," Graorac said in her address at the ceremonial academy of the Memorial Center of Republika Srpska.

Graorac emphasized that only truth can be the foundation of justice, which does not currently exist in these areas, but that justice can become the foundation of peace in the future.

She believes that through cooperation between the Memorial Centre of Republika Srpska and the Republic Organization of Families of Captured, Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians, as well as all those who consider it important, the truth about the war is permanently preserved, along with memories of endured horrors, irreplaceable losses, and wounds that time has not been able to heal.

"It is the obligation of all Serbs who live on their own land, as well as associations, organizations, and institutions of Republika Srpska, to encourage those who can testify about the horrors of war and to permanently preserve the truth about them," Graorac said, adding that testimonies about Serb suffering will continue in the name of all those who were killed and must never be forgotten.

She noted that the Memorial Centre's database contains 1,500 recorded testimonies and represents a unique hub of social, scientific, and institutional knowledge about the suffering of the Serb people, based on recorded statements of family members of killed and missing civilians and soldiers from the Defensive-Patriotic War, as well as all those whose fate bears witness to Serb suffering and struggle.

The database includes testimonies from the territory of Republika Srpska, BiH, Serbia, particularly from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, the former Republic of Serbian Krajina and Croatia, as well as testimonies about the genocide against Serbs in the NDH /Independent State of Croatia/ during World War II.