KARAN: BRUTAL AND PREMEDITATED CRIME - WE WILL NEVER ACCEPT FORGETTING

BANJA LUKA, May 15 /SRNA/ – The attack on the JNA convoy in Tuzla, which was supposed to peacefully leave the Tuzla barracks based on a previously reached agreement, represents a brutal and premeditated crime against JNA soldiers and civilians, stated Siniša Karan, President of Republika Srpska.

"That crime remains a permanent symbol of the suffering of the Serb people at the very beginning of the war, at a moment when the given word and agreement by the Muslim side were brutally violated," Karan told SRNA regarding the crime committed against JNA members and civilians in Tuzla on this day in 1992 by Muslim paramilitary forces. He stressed that what happened on May 15, 1992, was not an incident, nor even less a spontaneous clash, but rather a planned massacre carried out with clear intent, as evidenced by numerous facts, including existing video footage of the attack itself. "What is especially painful is the fact that even after more than three decades, justice has not been served and no one has been finally convicted for the crime against JNA members in the Tuzla Convoy. The absence of punishment for those responsible for this horrific and unprovoked massacre represents another injustice toward the victims and their families," Karan said, adding that this was not the first crime against soldiers and JNA members in BiH. He recalled that this terrible crime against soldiers who were peacefully leaving Tuzla in accordance with a prior agreement occurred less than two weeks after a similar crime in Sarajevo, in Dobrovoljačka Street. "Today we remember with sorrow the sons who never returned to their homes and families. Their names will remain engraved in our collective memory and in the foundations of Republika Srpska," the president said. He emphasized that the Serb people remember their victims and will never allow their sacrifice to be silenced or humiliated. "We will not accept forgetting, nor allow the truth to be concealed. Without truth there is no justice, and without justice there can be no sincere peace among peoples. Republika Srpska was created and has endured as a pledge that the Serb people will never again be left without protection, without a voice, and without the right to preserve their dignity. Therefore today, with pain in our hearts but our heads held high, we declare that we remember our victims and that we will preserve our freedom," Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan stated.