MESAROVIĆ: PODRINJE CRIME MUST NEVER BE VEILED BY OBLIVION

BRATUNAC, JULY 4 /SRNA/ – Serbia’s President's envoy Adrijana Mesarović has said today in Bratunac that international justice had remained silent over the crimes committed by Muslim forces against 3,267 Serbs, including the unforgivable killing of 47 innocent children, adding that the Serb people must never forget their fallen compatriots and must continue to fight for the truth.

"We stand here on the martyred soil of the Central Podrinje and Birač region, gathered in prayer, sorrow and respect. We stand before the names of 3,267 fallen Serb civilians and soldiers. The roar of the Drina River and the silence of the burned villages remind us that this crime must never be covered by the veil of oblivion," Mesarović said in her address in Bratunac at the commemoration marking more than three decades since the crimes committed against Serbs in the Central Podrinje and Birač region. The ceremony was attended by officials of Republika Srpska and Serbia, as well as Pastor Mark Burns, adviser for spiritual affairs to U.S. President Donald Trump.

She stressed that this area, soaked in tears and blood, represents a centuries-old path of suffering for the Serb people.

"From the Doboj internment camp during the First World War, through the crimes of the Second World War, to the Defensive-Patriotic War, the Serb people here has always paid the highest possible price for their existence," said Mesarović, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia.

She recalled that Serb-populated villages in Srebrenica, Bratunac, Zvornik, Milići, Vlasenica and Osmaci were looted, destroyed and burned, that entire Serbian families were targeted, and that the crimes were often planned to coincide with major Orthodox religious holidays.

As she emphasized, the victims included children, the elderly and other civilians who wanted only to remain in their homes, while the killing of 47 innocent children represented a particularly grave crime.

"Boys such as Slobodan Stojanović and Aleksandar and Radislav Dimitrijević died martyr's deaths. Today their innocent eyes look at us from photographs and ask whether their sacrifice will have been in vain," Mesarović said.

She stated that what happened in the Podrinje region must never be forgotten, noting that more than 150 Serb-populated villages were razed and that justice has still not been served for these monstrous crimes.

"We have no right to remain silent, which is why we are here. We do not come to Bratunac merely to count the victims, but to preserve the memory of them, because a people who remember their martyrs remain united with God and the truth," Mesarović said.

She stressed that it is everyone's duty to pass on their stories to future generations so that such suffering is never repeated.

"May eternal glory and peace be granted to all the innocent Serb martyrs of the Central Podrinje and Birač region. May we carry in our minds and hearts a pledge before the innocent victims and before God to preserve the Republic of Serbia and Republika Srpska, peace and freedom, and to know and remember that one is not invited to Bratunac, one goes to Bratunac," Mesarović concluded.