It is evident that people in the Republic of Srpska and FBiH notice and feel Serbia’s constant care for the position of the Serbian people because investments cannot be denied, nor can the efforts to protect Serb property. We also listen to representatives of associations, all with the sole purpose of helping our compatriots while in no way harming others.

This is a statement for Glas by the chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region of the National Assembly of Serbia, Milimir Vujadinović, who is also an SNS MP. After visiting the Serb community in FBiH and Nevesinje with Arnaud Gouillon, director of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region operating within the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vujadinović said that a needs assessment and a plan of assistance in the visited locations had been made.

During the working visit, they spoke with representatives of Mostar Serbs, visited Serb returnees in Baćevići, 15th century Žitomislić Monastery, and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Prebilovci, which was built in memory of 4,000 local Serbs killed by Ustasha in the Second World War. Vujadinović underlined that cooperation was crucial for Serbs, no matter how often that had been reiterated, emphasizing that cooperation between Srpska and Serbia, but also with the community in FBiH, lately had been concrete and connected with projects benefiting everyone.

– In addition to the President and Government doing an extraordinary job and carrying out large infrastructure projects, we are trying to follow that course also regarding citizens’ associations. We prepared many analyses, listened to them, and also saw on the spot what they were doing and what was needed. We returned with a clear picture and ideas of what we can do, and indicated the project benefits to them – said Vujadinović, pointing to the need to preserve the Serbian language and upgrade the rights of the Serb community in Mostar and other areas.

Speaking about the campaign to protect Serb property in FBiH, he reminded that this very serious and important work had been discussed at a Committee session, and later by other bodies. A few months later, he emphasized, great success was achieved as hundreds of families came forward and started the process of property protection.

– Serbia continues to help Srpska and Serb community in FBiH. We changed history during the past period. Until recently, there were only projects dating back to the Ottoman Empire or buildings made by Austria everywhere, and in the current picture every local community in the Republic of Srpska and FBiH where Serbs live, has something financed by and named after the state of Serbia. That remains for history, and we have big projects ahead of us, starting from the motorway and other important facilities on the Drina – Vujadinović pointed out.

That, he says, is for the benefit of the Serbs living there, but also for all the well-meaning.

– We were doing something that is good for the Serbian people, and at the very least not harmful for anyone else. This last visit is the second leg of the same policy in which we want to be more with citizens’ associations. The focus is on ties, to make them as strong as possible between Srpska and Serbia, while respecting everything that is the Constitution of BiH – he concluded.

Museum

Milimir Vujadinović recalled the museum within the Žitomislić monastery which does not need much, except institutional connection with museums in Serbia.

– We have already established contact with them to connect them so that they can participate in some projects together, because this one in the Neretva Valley is a real treasure of our people in the Balkans – he said.

Source: Glas Srpske

Photo: Republic of Srpska Representative Office in Serbia