WE SHOULD NEVER ALLOW CRIMES IN USTASHA CONCENTRATION CAMP JASENOVAC TO BE FORGOTTEN

LAKTAŠI, APRIL 27 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik Dodik said that attempts to forget the crimes in the Ustasha concentration camp Jasenovac are in the interest of those who committed them, but that this must never happen.

"That was one of the most horrific systematic crimes that lasted until the very last day, until the breakout of the inmates. Jasenovac ceased operation on May 4, and the fascists capitulated on May 9," pointed out Dodik.

He noted that even one of the German generals warned about the monstrous crimes in Jasenovac, requesting from the German high command that such atrocities be brought under control, which indicates that the Ustashas and the NDH led in the brutality against Serbs.

Dodik reiterated that today marks the 80th anniversary of the monstrous suffering of over half a million Serbs, as well as members of the Jewish and Roma communities, in the Jasenovac Ustasha concentration camp.

He reminded that in April 1945, the camp inmates managed to break out of the Jasenovac Ustasha concentration camp, but only slightly more than a hundred survived the breakout.

"The fact that six months before the breakout, Belgrade was liberated, yet this camp continued to operate, speaks of the monstrosity of the Independent State of Croatia and the Ustashas," Dodik told reporters in Laktaši after attending the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide at the Jasenovac camp in Donja Gradina today.

He noted that there have been many manipulations regarding this camp over the past 80 years, and reminded that Tito's communist regime tried to erase the facts about the suffering of Serbs in Jasenovac.

"The breakup of the former Yugoslavia led to the new suffering of Serbs, even though they never forgot the suffering in Jasenovac and at other killing sites," added the President of Republika Srpska.

He reminded that the areas around Jasenovac and the territory of present-day Republika Srpska were devastated during World War II.

He emphasized that the fate of every innocent victim, especially children, hurts him, recalling that the Jasenovac camp system also had camps for children.

Dodik emphasized that everything was aimed at one nation, the Serbian Orthodox people, whom they wanted to exterminate, and reminded that the Ustashas killed them in every Serbian village they could enter.

"It is of great importance that today the Serbian people are united and have their two states, Republika Srpska and Serbia," concluded Dodik.