MEMORIAL COMPLEX HONORING 16TH KRAJINA BRIGADE SET FOR COMPLETION BY THE BRIGADE DAY

GRADIŠKA, JANUARY 23 /SRNA/ – More than BAM one million is needed to build the Memorial Center dedicated to the 16th Krajina Motorized Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army in Mašići near Gradiška. The funds will be provided by nine local communities from which the brigade's soldiers came, it was agreed at the meeting organized by Gradiška Mayor Zoran Adžić.

Following the meeting at Gradiška City Hall, attended by members of the Association of Veterans of the 16th Krajina Motorized Brigade, Adžić reminded that last year the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, allocated BAM 700,000 for the project, while the City of Gradiška set aside around BAM 500,000 to resolve property and legal issues and prepare project documentation.

He said it was agreed that the local communities would sign a joint investment agreement and form a team to monitor the project’s implementation.

The goal is for the memorial complex to be completed by September 16, the Day of the 16th Krajina Motorized Brigade, marking the date when its fighters gathered in Mašići and set out on their wartime path.

Representatives of the cities and municipalities participating in the project said they would find a way to secure the necessary funds, even though they were not initially planned in this year’s local budgets.

Bojan Krasojević, envoy of the Mayor of Banja Luka, said that the City of Banja Luka has always supported projects important to the veteran population, believing that Republika Srpska will endure as long as the memory endures of those who gave their lives, parts of their bodies, and their youth for it.

Deputy Mayor of Laktaši Darko Stanković stressed that Republika Srpska was paid for at a high price and that more than 30 years have passed since the Homeland-Defense War, making it high time to build a memorial complex dedicated to the fighters of a brigade that took part in almost all battlefields.

Head of the Department for Veteran and Disability Protection in the City Administration of Prijedor Ranko Kolar reminded that the "Sixteenth" was the most elite brigade of the Republika Srpska Army and that its immeasurable wartime contribution obliges the City of Prijedor to participate in the construction of the Memorial Center in Mašići, in line with its capabilities.

The President of the Association of Veterans of the 16th Krajina Motorized Brigade Gojko Stanojević thanked representatives of the local communities for reaching an agreement on building the memorial complex, which he said is of great importance to all veterans of the brigade, especially the families of fallen comrades.

During the war, around 12,000 fighters from almost all parts of Republika Srpska passed through the 16th Krajina Motorized Brigade. Of them, 432 were killed defending the homeland, and nearly 2,000 were wounded.

Over a wartime path lasting 1,727 days, the brigade fought on more than 20 battlefields and was awarded the Order of Nemanjići, the highest military decoration of Republika Srpska, for its wartime merits.