NUŽDIĆ: SERBS SUFFERED MASS CASUALTIES DURING ALL YEARS OF WAR

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 17 /SRNA/ - The acting director of the Republika Srpska Center for Research of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons, Viktor Nuždić, said that Serbs suffered mass casualties during all years of war, and that volumes of the Atlas of Crimes against Serbs during the Defense Patriotic War give identity to the victims and prevent attacks aimed at rewriting history.

Nuždić emphasized that June is the month of suffering, but also of heroism of the Serbian people, and that the third volume of the Atlas of Crimes against Serbs during the Defense Patriotic War explains scientifically and professionally what happened in the 1990s in BiH. "The reasons for this are primarily to re-humanize the victims and give identity to these people, so that their sacrifice is never forgotten, but at the same time to prevent the increasingly frequent attacks through revisionist attempts to rewrite history," Nuždić told reporters in Banja Luka, where the third volume of the Atlas of Crimes against Serbs during the Defense Patriotic War was promoted, published by the Republika Srpska Center. According to him, 76 mass execution sites were documented, which supports the fact that Serbs were unprepared for war and did not expect such a tragic conflict to erupt in BiH. He reminded that the Republika Srpska Army protected the Serb people and prevented a recurrence of genocide like the one that happened in the infamous Independent State of Croatia during World War II. "The Atlas for 1995 is currently being prepared, which, unfortunately, will again be a year of suffering in which many of our compatriots lost their lives," Nuždić stated. The author of the Atlas of Crimes against Serbs, Siniša Simikić, said that the third volume covers the suffering of Serbs during 1994. Simikić stated that the Serbian people suffered the least during 1994, as a result of the organization of the Republika Srpska Army and the establishment of defense lines. "Greater Serbian casualties occurred in the second half of 1994, when the Muslim-Croat coalition began operations, some of which are covered in the third volume and relate to Operation `Grmeč` and the suffering of Serbs in the Visoka Krajina," Simikić emphasized. For 1994, he emphasized the characteristic constant sabotage incursions by members of the so-called Army of BiH into border villages throughout Republika Srpska, which meant mass killings of Serbian civilians and destruction of property. The promotion of the third volume of the Atlas was also attended by the Republika Srpska Minister of Justice, Miloš Bukejlović. The three volumes cover the first three years of the war, and activities are underway to prepare the fourth volume dedicated to 1995.