For Vuciqi, US sanctions on Republika Srpska and Serbia officials “do not exist”

“is enough to see what sanctions are on to see how impartial they are. We're a small country, especially compared to the United States. For us, those sanctions do not exist and we will in no way agree with those who imposed those sanctions against members of our nation. For us, this is the only possible, fair but difficult” decision, Vuciqi said on August 4th in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Uciciqi said that during the last two days, in addition to sanctions, he has discussed the leadership of Republika Srpska (RS) and the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, “for everything that happened and could happen in Kosovo”.

During this year, Serbia and the entity Republika Srpska are celebrating “on the day of the Memorial of the Victims and Serbs taken to action -- Stuhia” in Prijedor, which brought Serbia's top officials to Banja Luka.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's territorial integrity, Serbia, Republika Srpska

During a media conference with RS President Milorad Dodik, Vuciqi said Serbia fully respects Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and integrity, but also Bosnia and Herzegovina's internal integrity, which consists of two entities and three peoples”.

“We expect Bosnia and Herzegovina to respect Serbia's territorial integrity, which did not happen during the vote at the Council of Europe”, Vuciqi said, calling on “enemies in Bosnia and Herzegovina to respect this”.

At the end of April 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina's representative to the Council of Europe abstained during Kosovo's admission to the organisation.

Speaking of the opening of the Consulate in Bijeljina, against which Denis Becirovovic, a Bosniak member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, voted on July 31st, Vuciqi said there was nothing against opening some other consulates of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Serbia and that for him, nothing that comes from Sarajevo is hostile and I would like them to think the same about such initiatives from Serbia in”.

He said he is ready to meet with everyone in Sarajevo “if they want to chat” and said that “all from Sarajevo are welcome in Belgrade”.

I never mentioned the Serbian World. German media reported the day before I was dreaming about it. I've never said that, so now they're starting to enter my dreams”, Vuciqi said.

He asked whether it is possible that the “Republika Srpska alone is guilty of everything in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the foreign factor” and “that everything in Kosovo is because of Serbs”.

Dodik repeated his previous thesees

Dodik, speaking at the media conference after Vuciqi, said presidency member Denis Beciroviq, “is only one-third of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

Some from Sarajevo think they're asking for the whole country. If it does not include all three nations, then it is not Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Dodik said.

Dodik added that their aim is for ties between Republika Srpska and Serbia to be more intense and that “Serbia and Republika Srpska will protect Republika Srpska together”.

Our co-operation does not target anyone or a third party in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Dodik said.

He added that during the meeting, construction of the highway from Belgrade to Banja Luka and projects funded by Serbia in local communities in Republika Srpska, where Serbs are the majority.

Dodik also said they discussed US sanctions on him and Republika Srpska officials, which, according to him, “were not easy and come from the largest country in the world, the United States of America, which have had a hostile attitude towards Serbs and Serbia since Yugoslavia”.

He reiterated his earlier statements about the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He again referred to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a “state community”, he spoke of “uszurpation” of the competencies of the Republika Srpska, “anti-unconstitutional ministers” at the Bosnia and Herzegovina Council of Ministers and the decisions of senior representatives in the country and the international community “directed against Serbs”.

Petrovci victims remembered

The presidents of Republika Srpska and Serbia, accompanied by Bishop Sergi from Bihaq-Petrovc and the victims' families, placed flower wreaths at the memorial at Petrovc Street, which leads from Banja Luka to Bosnian Petrovcin.

In that country, in early August 1995, Croatian military aviation rocketed a group of refugees fleeing Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and then to Serbia. According to Serbian organisations, 37 civilians were killed and wounded there.

We will not forget our victims. The loss of the Serbian province was a major loss to the Serbian people. Serbia is stronger today, as is Republika Srpska. Until before Aleksandar Vucinqi, Serbia tried to suppress the memory of some events so as not to anger others. Everything's changed today. We will mark all our suffering sites”, Dodik said.

He added that after Bosnia's Petrovci will go to Prijedor, the move that he said some people see as provocation “as if Serbs had not died in Prijedor”.

“We have to pay tribute to other victims, but no one can prevent us from remembering our suffering”, Dodik said, among other things.

Over the past 28 years I've thought countless times about this country, I've imagined the end of the refugees who went through this road, how our people died here. For years we refused and were not allowed to commemorate what is the tragedy of our people. We twice erected this memorial cross that destroyed us. Now we've raised triple larger. If they tear this down, we'll raise a triple larger than this and show we don't stand to kill children”, said Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciqi.

He stressed that Serbs should show respect for Bosniak and Croatian victims, but that Serb victims “who were killed only because they had Serbian names” should not be forgotten.

And Vuciqi said that in Serbia “for decades, the victims of Jasenovac and other execution sites were silent, because I think it was pleasant for the ear, but we wouldn't be silenced in”.

He warned aid for municipalities in Republika Srpska and another entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina inhabited by the Serb majority, saying that “at one time [August 4th 1994, following the refusal of the peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina] Serbia also imposed sanctions against Republika Srpska”.

With flowers placed at the monument in the village of Janjila near Petrovci in Bosnia, located in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, this year's “Memorial Diter of the Victims and Serbs taken away in the action 'Stuhia” has officially begun.

The central event this year will be held in Prijedor.

During the two-day visit of the Serbian delegation, led by President Aleksandar Vuciq and Prime Minister Anna Brnabiq, the Council for Co-operation session between Serbia and Republika Srpska has also been held.

On 4 August, RS and Serbian entity governments signed a memorandum of co-operation to implement the project previously warned of building two memorial centres dedicated to Jasenovac victims in Gradina in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belgrade.

During World War II, tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, Croats and other anti-fascists were killed at the Jasenovac camp known as “Ausvici Croatian”. The camp was run by the Ustashe regime, which were allies of the Nazis in Croatia.

On August 3rd, in part, delegations visited the newly constructed garden “Srbija” in the Srbaba municipality in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, while formerly Dodik, Vuciqi and the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfirije, spoke at the monastery in Osovica.

Memorial in Serbia, congratulations in Croatia

“event The storm” began on August 4, 1995, and lasted 84 hours. In Serbia and Croatia, there are diametrically opposed perceptions of this action.

The official Narrate in Croatia is that it was a “military police operation” in which Croatian military and police, as well as units of the Croatian Defence Council and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, “liberated areas occupied under the control of rebel Serbs”, where the Republika Srpska province was established.

August 5th, known as “Victory and Gratitude Day to Homeland” and “Croatian Veterans' Day” is officially celebrated as the day when Croatian forces entered the almost completely empty Kin settlement and a celebration of the return of some 150,000 Croats expelled in 1991.

In Serbia and Republika Srpska, this day refers to as “pogrom” and “the largest ethnic cleansing in Europe after World War II” in the area of Bani, Lica, Cordun and Northern Dalmatia, and is sometimes called “genocide”.

According to data from the nongovernmental organisation “Veritas”, formed by the citizens of the area, during “Storm” has been expelled from over 220 thousand Serbs in the province, and 1,869 have been killed, of whom 1.220 were reportedly civilians.

According to official data, a total of about 133,000 Serbs have returned to Croatia's territory after the war, from which the largest number were elderly and about 30 percent were over 65.

According to the 2001 Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights report for the 2001 Operation Storm, the total number of victims among Serbs is 677.

According to Croatian State Prosecutorial Data, around 2,380 people have been convicted of crimes committed during and after “Storm”, like murder, robbery and fire.

In April 2011, The Hague First Scale Court sentenced Croatian generals Anta Gotovina to 24 years in prison and Mladen Markac to 18 years for crimes committed during the “operation. Storm” However, in November of next year, the Judiciary Chamber overturned the verdict and acquitted the two generals.

Why remind “Storm” in Prijedor?

National Memorial of Serbs' suffering in action “Storm” officially began in 2015.

“The Day of the Memorial of the Victims and Serbs taken to action {Stuhia” has been marked throughout Serbia in recent years. This year, a joint holiday was organised in Prijedor, attended by representatives of Serbia, Republika Srpska and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

On the eve of the anniversary, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said Prijedor was elected as the celebration site “because Prijedor's people were the first to welcome Serb refugees” from the so-called Srpska Republic province.

“We are willing to listen and understand the sufferings of Bosniaks and all others, but we also demand that they hear what Serbs have to say”, Vuciqi said before the visit.

On May 31st 1992, the Serbian authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Prijedor issued an order, via local radio, for the non-Serb population to mark their homes with white flags or sheets and place white strips around their sleeves when they leave home.

Thereafter, more than 3,000 civilians were killed. More than 32,000 non-Serbs from Prijedor were held illegally in about 60 concentration camps, including in Omarska, Keraterm, and Manjaca.

The largest mass grave since World War II was found in that city in northern Bosnia, in the area of Thomashica's former mother. For crimes in Prijedor, according to information from the Association of Victims, about 50 binding judgments have been rendered, and sentences of about 800 years in prison have been pronounced. / REL