The Acting Director of the Memorial Center of Republika Srpska, Denis Boji\u0107, signed memorandums of cooperation today in Belgrade with representatives of five associations of families of the killed, missing, and fallen.<\/p>\n
These include the Coordination of Serbian Associations of Families of Missing, Killed, and Fallen Persons from the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia, the Association \u201cKosmet Victims\u201d [\u201cKosmetski stradalnici\u201d], and the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo and Metohija.<\/p>\n
Among them are also the Association of Parents and Families of Arrested, Captured, and Missing Persons of the FR Yugoslavia, and the Center for the Protection of Families of War Victims in Kosovo and Metohija.<\/p>\n
Through the signed memorandums, as stated, the necessity of permanently recording and preserving data on the suffering of Serbs in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the bombing of Serbia, and the pogrom and expulsion of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija is confirmed.<\/p>\n
At a press conference held by the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo and Metohija, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of this association and the 26th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, Boji\u0107 said that signing the memorandums of cooperation is part of the joint struggle for the truth about the suffering of the Serbian people in the wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that achieving this goal requires integrating not only organizations and institutions, but also all individuals, in order to place the entire Serbian people in the line of defense against historical revisionism, which poses the greatest danger.<\/p>\n
Boji\u0107 recalled that more than 50,000 Serbs were killed and went missing in the wars on the territory of Yugoslavia, and more than 35,000 soldiers and civilians on the territory of Republika Srpska alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrecisely for this reason, Republika Srpska has every kind of historical obligation to take upon itself the task of documenting and recording everything that can be recorded regarding the suffering of our fellow countrymen,\u201d Boji\u0107 stressed.<\/p>\n
He noted that in the Public Institution Memorial Center of Republika Srpska, while carrying out this work over the past two years, they realized that the time has come for Serbian institutions, organizations, and associations to integrate into a joint project and create a common database of recorded testimonies, which will be available not only to the Serbian people but to all of humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that this is a complex, extensive, and in every segment nuanced project, it is still ongoing, and we hope that the database will be available by the end of this year or the beginning of next year,\u201d Boji\u0107 said.<\/p>\n
The President of the Association of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo and Metohija, Verica Tomanovi\u0107, said that in the process of searching for the missing in Kosovo and Metohija, there has been no progress whatsoever, nor in investigations into crimes against the Serbian people.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija continues 26 years after the adoption of Resolution 1244, without whose consistent implementation reconciliation cannot occur.<\/p>\n
Tomanovi\u0107 urged that members of families of the missing insist that the search for the missing be a priority in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnormous sins have been committed against our loved ones, and that is why we will never forget them,\u201d Tomanovi\u0107 conveyed.<\/p>\n
Suzana Mateji\u0107 from the Government of Serbia's Commission on Missing Persons called on families of the missing not to give up their struggle despite all difficulties, because as long as their voice is heard, there is hope that the fates of the missing will be clarified.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our duty not to allow the victims to be forgotten. We will continue to be their support until the last fate is clarified,\u201d Mateji\u0107 said.<\/p>\n
She emphasized that the Commission supports the associations' appeal for the depoliticization of the process concerning the missing, as it is not and must not be a political issue, but primarily a humanitarian one.<\/p>\n
\u0110or\u0111e Todorov, State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs of Serbia, said that the state will do everything to help families of the missing, adding that one step in that direction is the drafting of a law on the rights of families of missing persons.<\/p>\n
The President of the Coordination of Serbian Associations of Families of Missing, Killed, and Murdered Persons in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia, Mirjana Miodrag Bo\u017ein, stated that families of the victims, especially the missing, are constantly given promises, but the processes do not move forward.<\/p>\n
She questioned when a memorial center for war victims [from the 1990s] would be established in Belgrade, given that Croats in Zagreb and Bosniaks in Srebrenica have such centers, and she conveyed that history has shown that those who respect themselves will also be respected by others.<\/p>\n