Belgrad, August 5, 2010
Fifteen years ago, during the Croatian military operation intended to finally destroy the Serbian republic of Krajina, 2,000 Serbs were lost without a trace, and 220,000 people were sent exiled from the places where they had lived for centuries. During that time, operation “Mistral” was being implemented on the territory of neighboring Bosnia and Herzogovina, when the Croatian forces, formed with the support of the Fifth corps of the Moslem army of Bosnia and Herzogovina, killed 655 more Serbs, and expelled 125,000.
On this sorrowful day, Serbian President Boris Tadich and other government officials, along with many of the faithful, came to pray for the repose of the souls of those who perished during those attacks.
In his address to those present after the parastasis, Patriarch Irenei said that the only guilt of the people who died fifteen years ago was that, “First of all, they were Orthodox, and second, they were Serbs.” In the Patriarch’s words, this unending crime is happening at the end of the twentieth, beginning of the twenty-first centuries, at a time when the world prides itself on science, democracy, philosophy, and art.
“Most tragic of all is that this crime continues, and the world looks on, doing nothing to find the graves of those who perished…” emphasized the Patriarch, and added that those who were expelled fifteen years ago endure great torment even now. They want to return to their homeland but cannot, and those who have returned live in fear, not knowing what will happen.” He noted also that the same thing is happening with the Serbs in Kosovo and Metochia.
Pravoslavie.ru/OrthoChristian.com
