VUKELIĆ: EXISTENCE OF SRPSKA - GUARANTEE THAT GENOCIDE AGAINST SERBIAN PEOPLE WILL NOT BE REPEATED

PRIJEDOR, JULY 19 /SRNA/ - We remember the genocide committed against the Serbian people during the Second World War and the innocent victims, particularly the children murdered in the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/, said Nikola Vukelić, State Secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs.

"These innocent victims must not and will never be forgotten," Vukelić said at the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for Children Murdered during the Genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in the NDH /1941–1945/. Vukelić emphasized that the existence and survival of Republika Srpska is a guarantee that such atrocities will never be repeated. "Republika Srpska was the Serbian people's response to the genocide they suffered during the Second World War, and to the one being prepared against them again in the wars of the 1990s," Vukelić told reporters in Macure near Prijedor. He said that he was attending the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance in Macure near Prijedor on behalf of the Serbian Government, to convey brotherly greetings and love to the people of Republika Srpska. "We are here to say that we remember the genocide against the Serbian people in the Second World War and that we cherish the memory of the innocent victims," Vukelić said. The Day of Remembrance for Children Murdered during the Genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in the NDH /1941-1945/ is commemorated today in the hamlet of Macure, part of the Prijedor settlement of Gornji Jelovac. According to incomplete historical data, 74,642 children, from newborns to 14-year-olds, were murdered in the NDH in the most monstrous ways. The NDH was the only state in Europe that established concentration camps specifically for children - in Sisak, Jastrebarsko, Reka near Jastrebarsko, and Gornja Rijeka near Križevci. The commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for Children Murdered during the Genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in the Independent State of Croatia /1941-1945/ is organized by the Republika Srpska Government's Committee for Preservation of the Traditions of Liberation Wars.