83RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUFFERING OF SERBS IN BIELI POTOK MARKED

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 21 /SRNA/ - The Banja Luka settlement of Bijeli Potok has marked today the 83rd anniversary of the killing of 54 Serbs and the brutal Ustasha crime committed in this place during the Second World War by holding a memorial service and laying wreaths at the memorial.

On the second day of Easter, April 5, 1942, the Ustasha brutally killed 54 residents of the Banja Luka settlement of Bijeli Potok. The Vujasinović, Bogojević, Milinković, Ćurlić and Adamović families suffered the most. Banjaluka City Assembly Speaker, Ljubo Ninković, emphasized that the Serbs killed in this monstrous Ustasha crime must not be forgotten. "Historical facts must be preserved. It is very important that we gather in places like this so that the Serb victims and enormous sufferings are not forgotten," Ninković told the press. The Head of the Association of Families, Descendants and Followers of the Victims of Ustasha Terror in Bijeli Potok, Branko Milinković, emphasized that the hills in Bijeli Potok have been a silent witness to the brutal Ustasha crime for decades, for which no one was held accountable. He recalled that the Ustashas first came to the Vujasinović family, which they killed without firing a shot, then they also killed the Bogojevićs, and then the Milinkovićs, 31 of them. "My one-year-old brother was beheaded. What was the child's fault? My 20-year-old sister was slaughtered here who begged the Ustasha not to kill her, but he took a rifle and hit her in the chest with the butt. She fell and the Ustasha slaughtered her," said Milinković. The monument in the settlement of Bijeli Potok was unveiled and consecrated in 2002, with the help of the city of Banja Luka.