PATRON SAINT’S DAY IN SUFFERING JOŠANICA - TESTIMONY TO LIFE’S RETURN

FOČA, MAY 24 /SRNA/ - A large number of faithful today celebrated the patron saint's day of the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Gornja Jošanica near Foča, which was built in memory of 56 villagers killed in the St. Nicholas Day massacre in 1992, as well as in honour of all those who perished from this area during the Defensive-Patriotic War.

The chime of church bells echoing through the hills of Jošanica, the gathering for liturgy, hymns of celebration, and later folk dancing accompanied by music and song, all testify that, despite painful and still unhealed wounds awaiting justice for the perpetrators of the St. Nicholas Day massacre, life is slowly but surely returning to Jošanica. On December 19, 1992, Muslim forces from Goražde brutally killed 56 Serbs, including 21 women and children - Dragana Višnjić /10/, her 7-year-old brother Dražen, and 2-year-old Danka Tanović. Jela and Miladin Višnjić, the sister and brother-in-law of Slavko Đorđević, were also massacred. "The Muslims destroyed Jošanica. No one was killed by a bullet – they were beaten with blunt objects, their stomachs and throats were stabbed," Đorđević recalls of the horrific crime against the innocent civilians of Jošanica. Among those present for the celebration was Helga Fuchs from Germany, a great friend of the Serb people. As an independent researcher and social activist, she has been working for years to ensure the truth about the civil war in BiH reaches the German public. “I was in Kosovo and Metohija in 2001, trying to uncover the truth about the Serbs. The propaganda in the German media was immense, and I realized then that it wasn’t the truth,” said Fuchs. After that, she began her search for the truth in BiH. “I traveled through Bijeljina, Skelani, Srebrenica, Kravica to Foča and Jošanica, and I saw was immense suffering of Serbs there; what the German media was reporting is largely untrue and full of propaganda. My heart stayed here in BiH, in Jošanica - I love coming here,” said Fuchs. The Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius was built in the Hodžići hamlet on land donated by Ljuban Višnjić, who lost his parents, two brothers, sister-in-law, and two nephews on that St. Nicholas Day in 1992.