The President of Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik, in his speech marking the 29th anniversary of military operations in western Bosnia, made accusations about the alleged aggression of Croat and Bosniak forces as part of the “Ustasha ideology” directed against Serbs.
Dodik said that the operations from the fall and summer of 1995, in which a large part of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was liberated, “were a designed and planned continuation of the Ustasha idea of erasing the Serbian name and the existence of Serbs in this area.”
“They killed people in the worst possible way, brutally tortured them just as the Ustasha and members of the Handzar Divisiondid in World War II. Their descendants committed a massacre of unimaginable proportions in a few months in 1995, for which no one has ever been held accountable, nor will they ever be held accountable, as long as there are prosecutors and judges in Sarajevo, who neglected the law long ago and for whom the Serbian victim is not a victim. These are the people for whom the Michael Murphy is law according to which should be judged, and the crimes committed against them be erased as if they never existed,” Dodik said.
He added that the Serbs “were victims of the Ustasha ideology, the essence of which is to cleanse the territory of Croatia and BiH of Serbs in three ways – persecution, killing and convertingto Catholicism.”
“That was the ideology of the Independent State of Croatia(NDH) in 1941, and it continued in the nineties of the last century. What the Ustasha did not finish until 1945, their descendants and followers continued,“ emphasized Dodik.
Dodik told agency Srna that it “has been a pure Serbian ethnic area for centuries, which was attacked in 1995 by descendants of Ustasha and members of the Handzar division.”
“1,608 houses and around 700 apartments were demolished and set on fire, movable property was systematically looted, and material damage of 680 million BAM was caused. This is the result of hordes of evildoers and their brutal torture. That’s why I repeat, so that a new Mrkonjic Grad does not happen to us, Stari Brod, Prebilovci, the Sarajevo exodus, we must be united today because our present and future will depend on how much we work on unity and harmony,” explained Dodik.
He pointed out that the Serbian people are not used to retreating, giving up and faltering.
“Our ancestors didn’t do that, so we won’t either, we can’t because of all the graves of our martyrs. If we want to be remembered for good, for courage, dignity and heroism, we need to deserve it, to be worthy of being remembered, just like these people from the heroic Serbian Krajina were,“ said Dodik.
Claims that the liberation operations in western Bosnia are a continuation of the NDH ideology conceal the complex military and political dynamics of 1995. The United Croatian Forces and the BiH Army aimed to liberate the occupied territories of BiH, not to wage a genocidal war as described by Dodik.
To recall, the Army of BiH (ARBiH), Croatian Defense Council (HVO) and Croatian Army (HV) liberated Ripac, Petrovac, Drvar, Grahovo, Glamoc, Kljuc, Sanski Most, Mrkonjic Grad, Sipovo, Donji Vakuf, Jajce, Kupres and Krupa na Uni.
During the last part of the liberation operation, i.e. Operation Southern Move, an area with a total area of 800 square kilometers was liberated, including the Podrasnicko field, the village of Cadjavica, the Bocac hydroelectric plant, and parts of the Manjaca mountain. The line of defense was set up on Mount Manjaca, 23 kilometers from Banja Luka, which was within range of the artillery of the joint forces, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
