SECTION FROM LAPIŠNICA TO ROGATICA NAMED "ROAD OF THE SERB VICTIMS OF STARI BROD ON DRINA"

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 18 /SRNA/ - The section from Lapišnica to Rogatica has been named the "Road of the Serb Victims of Stari Brod on the Drina", leaving a lasting reminder to every traveller of the attempt to eradicate the Serb people from the left bank of the Drina, but also of the price paid for their survival, Istočno Sarajevo Mayor Ljubiša Ćosić said.

In a statement to SRNA, Ćosić announced that traffic signs are scheduled to be installed next week, officially giving the Lapišnica-Ljubogošta-Podromanija-Rogatica main road section the name "Road of the Serb Victims of Stari Brod on the Drina".

He stressed that, as the City of Istočno Sarajevo prayerfully and ceremonially celebrates the feast of its patron saint, Holy Hieromartyr Petar of Sarajevo and Dabar-Bosnia, the initiative to preserve the memory of the suffering of the Serb people during the Second World War is entering its final phase.

Ćosić said that the project was implemented with the official approval of the Republika Srpska Ministry of Transport and Communications, as well as the public road construction and maintenance company "Roads", and with the blessing of His Eminence Hrizostom, Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosnia.

He stressed that this memorial designation would remind every traveller passing along this section of the statistical fact that 3.21 million Serbs were supposed to live in the territory encompassed by the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/, while today there are just under one million of them in what he called "the remnant of the remnants of the Serb people on the left bank of the Drina" - Republika Srpska.

According to him, by intertwining the memory of St. Petar of Dabar-Bosnia with the lasting remembrance of the martyrs of Stari Brod, this section of road ceases to be merely a transport link and becomes a corridor of remembrance.

"Every kilometer, from Lapišnica to Rogatica, reminds us of the price of freedom and that the path along which we walk freely today bears the footprints of our people driven towards the Drina with the aim of systematically eradicating everything Serbian," Ćosić said.

Ćosić recalled that, as an unwavering soldier of Christ, Petar /Zimonjić/ became one of the first major victims of the Ustasha prisons and concentration camps.

"How steadfast and respected he was among his people, but also among the people living in the eparchy entrusted to him, is shown by the fact that even today the place of his final suffering has not been discovered, that we have no relics before which we could pray, yet even in his physical absence he became a lasting symbol of the Resurrection of his flock. This applies particularly to the Serbs of Sarajevo, who proudly and defiantly continued to live under his saintly protection in the new, Serb Sarajevo," Ćosić wrote.