Every summer, roses are dropped in the river Lim and flowers are laid at the Memorial Center in honor of Bosniak war victims and victims of crimes against humanity in Rudo, a municipality in east Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) near Serbia. This year, the mayor of Rudo Rato Rajak, a member of the Serbian Radical Party of Republika Srpska, joined them.
Mayor of Rudo Ratko Rajak thanked the organizers for inviting him to participate in the commemoration of the war crimes, expressing condolences which are, unfortunately, a rarity in these times when those in government are refusing to condemn war crimes committed by members of their own nationality.
“We lived in a time of hard temptations. It wasn’t easy to remain a human. And that is why I respect all of those who tried to save human dignity in these times. I’m glad to have an opportunity to express my condolences as a human, to honor those who were victims. Also, I’m very happy that I, as mayor, can send one message of toleration and understanding of others’ pain and suffering and a message of a better life for posterity.”
In a sea of political parties and politicians that are calling themselves democrats, flowers for Bosniak victims in Rudo were laid first by a Serb Radical. Rajak is a member of the Serian Radical Party of RS, since he didn’t have much choice regarding political parties in Rudo.
“I’m sure that I am a radical man, if my radicalism is viewed in a wish to radically change this distance from each other. I’m radical, sure, in my wish for all of us to find a little more human respect for each other and understanding of our difference and to find what unites us.”
Evil never skirted our municipality. More than 100 civilians were killed, the entire Bosniak population was deported, but crimes were mostly committed by units coming from other cities.
“I condemn everything dirty, every monster, every criminal who got his hands dirty and from any side. Unfortunately, Rudo, just like every other place, didn’t go unscathed and that remains on our conscious, but what can be a condolence to us from Rudo is that most of what happened was done by those who came from other parts of the country.”
In the last few years, Rudo has been the source of stories of Serbs and Bosniaks together renovating a religious building in Ustribu and a mosque in Medurjecju, as well as youth which are meeting in inter-entity camps, as well as the lack of care of the state and the dark statistics of emigration from the country. Rajak notes that many today don’t want to talk about their participation in the war, but that he says that he was a commander of one of the units of the Military of RS.
“Believe me, I have a lot of Bosniak friends which were good soldiers on the other side compared to me and my experience in the war, but I do know that they are good, honorable people who didn’t allow themselves to get themselves dirty in any way. And those people are the most honest companions. We entirely honestly talk about what happened, into which someone else got us involved, and how we allowed someone to pull us into something like that. It’s the hardest to talk with deserters and profiteers, from both sides, who know this evil very well and just add to it by fattening their wallets, accounts, etc. We cannot one without another, or will we ever be able to do so. If that’s the case, and if that’ll be the case in the future, why would we leave to our future generations the evil which could once again be woken up when we’re able to leave them with something better.”
(Source: N1.ba)
