KARAN: KOZARA REMAINS SYMBOL OF FREEDOM AND SACRIFICE, VALUES WE WILL NEVER ALLOW TO BE DIMINISHED

BANJA LUKA, JULY 10 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan said Kozara is a symbol of the struggle against fascism and of resistance that came at the highest possible price - the lives of innocent people.

"With deep respect, we pay tribute to those who fell during the legendary Battle of Kozara in 1942 and to the suffering endured by the Serb people in this region," Karan said in a statement to SRNA on the occasion of the commemoration of the historic event, the Battle of Kozara.

He stressed that one truth must neither be ignored nor diminished: Kozara is a place where innocent people were killed on a mass scale and endured unimaginable suffering simply because they were Serbs and followers of the Orthodox Christian faith.

"There is not a single village in the Kozara region that was spared Ustasha crimes, nor a single family that did not suffer loss and grief. That is why it is our duty to preserve the truth, resist every attempt to rewrite history and firmly reject every effort to relativize it. The memory of this suffering must never fade. It obliges us to foster a culture of remembrance and to pass this truth on to future generations," the President of Srpska stressed.

He pointed out that the people of the Kozara region bore an enormous burden during the war and demonstrated, under the most difficult circumstances, how freedom is won and defended.

"Republika Srpska proudly upholds the values embodied by Kozara, as well as by all the other places where our people suffered and resisted, and there are many such places. Our gratitude to the fighters of the National Liberation Struggle, to the civilian victims and to all those who lost their lives must remain lasting and unquestionable.

By preserving the memory of Kozara, we honor all those who gave their lives for freedom and send a clear and unequivocal message: courage, sacrifice, truth, freedom and remembrance are values that we will never allow anyone to erase or diminish," Karan said.