RAJILIĆ: THE JUDICIARY HAS FORGOTTEN SERBIAN VICTIMS IN PODRINJE, BUT THE SERBIAN PEOPLE NEVER WILL

BANJA LUKA, JULY 3 /SRNA/ - The president of the Association of Women War Victims of Republika Srpska, Božica Živković Rajilić, told SRNA that the judiciary in BiH has forgotten the Serbian victims in Podrinje and Birač, but stressed that it is important for the Serbian people, especially the younger generations, to never forget them and remember them forever.

“It is unacceptable that after 33 years no one has been held accountable for the crimes, pogroms, suffering, killings, torture of the Serbian people, and the burning of Serbian property in the Podrinje area,” Rajilić said on the occasion of the upcoming commemoration of 33 years since the suffering of Serbs in this region.

Rajilić asked what the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of BiH are doing and how great the injustice against Serbs in BiH is, when no one has been convicted or prosecuted for such a crime.

According to her, the suffering of more than 3,200 Serbs in Podrinje is a crime without punishment, which must not remain unprosecuted.

“We need to pay tribute to the Serbs who suffered in Podrinje, to remember them, and not to allow injustice to be the measure for Serbian victims,” Rajilić concluded.

The 33rd anniversary of the massacre of 3,267 Serbs from the Middle Podrinje region will be marked on Saturday, July 5, in Bratunac. The full-day program under the slogan “Crime Without Punishment” will begin with the Holy Hierarchical Liturgy, which will be celebrated by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije at the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.

The memorial service is dedicated to all Serbian victims from the Middle Podrinje and Birač who perished during the Defense Patriotic War. It is organized on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the great suffering of Serbs on Petrovdan /St. Peter’s Day/ in 1992 in the villages around Srebrenica and Bratunac, when 69 were killed and 22 soldiers and civilians were captured, none of whom survived.

During the Defense Patriotic War, Muslim units from Srebrenica most often attacked Serbian villages on the biggest Orthodox holidays. On Petrovdan /St. Peter’s Day/ in 1992, they attacked the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase, and Zagone, killing everyone they could, and looting and burning Serbian property.