The Representative Office of the Republic of Srpska in the USA supported and participated in a donor dinner to raise money for making of a feature film about the surgeon and volunteer, Dr Miodrag Lazić, who was saving lives in the Republic of Srpska Krajina and the Republic of Srpska during the 1990s wars. The donor evening was organized in the church of All Serbian Saints in Mississauga, Canada, and the main organizers of the evening were members of the Association of Serbs from the Sarajevo-Romania region.

The donor dinner was attended by many dignitaries, including their eminences Bishop Mitrofan of Canada and Bishop Longin of New Gračanica-Midwestern America. In addition to the clergy, the evening was attended by Serbian Ambassador to Canada, Dejan Ralević, and Serbian Consul General in Toronto, Nebojša Tatomir. Participants from numerous Canadian and US cities raised about 60 thousand Canadian dollars on this occasion.

The Head of the Republic of Srpska US representation, Obrad Kesić, addressed the guests, conveying the greetings of the President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Radovan Višković, and reminded all the present that it was very important to spread the story of this great man throughout all Serbian communities around the world.

‘It is important to make this film because the story of Dr Lazić is also the story of the creation of the Republic of Srpska through a great sacrifice of Serbian soldiers, but also of the entire Serbian people, many of whom built their lives into the foundations of our Republic’, Kesić said.

Dr Miodrag Lazić died on 14 April 2020.

In 1991, he left his position of a surgeon in Niš and headed to the then Republic of Srpska Krajina.

During the war in BiH, as a surgeon, he participated in the breakthrough of the corridor in June 1992. After that, he volunteered at the Koran military hospital in Pale.

He is one of the founders of the Žica war hospital in Blažuj, near Sarajevo, located as it were right on the front line.

He stayed there for a full 40 months as the only surgeon in the territory of what was then Serb Sarajevo and performed more than 3,500 operations under general anaesthesia.

For his merits in saving the lives of Serbs and people of other nationalities, Miodrag Lazić was decorated with the Order of Saint Sava by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle.

The Republic of Srpska decorated Dr Lazić with the Order of the Cross of Mercy, and Serbia decorated him posthumously with the Order of Karađorđe’s Star, first class.

Source: Republic of Srpska Representative Office in the United States of America – RTRS – SRNA

Photo: Republic of Srpska Representative Office in the United States of America