Garavice is a place where the ideological extremism of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and hatred toward the Serb people claimed the lives of more than 12,000 innocent victims, including children, women, and the elderly, Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan said on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the mass killings at Garavice near Bihać.
According to Karan, the victims’ only “crime” was that they were Serbs, and they were targeted as part of what he described as the Ustaše regime’s campaign to ethnically cleanse the area of its Serb population.
“During just a few weeks, around 12,000 Serb civilians, including a large number of children, were killed. Their martyrdom was systematically silenced for decades,” Karan said.
He stated that, although entire villages were destroyed and attempts were made to erase all traces of the Serb population, those efforts ultimately failed.
“They extinguished homes and erased entire villages from the map, but they could never extinguish our traditions or our identity. We endured despite all the crimes committed against us, and today we have our homeland, Republika Srpska, in honour of all our ancestors who chose suffering rather than submission,” Karan said.
Karan argued that the post-war neglect of Garavice, as well as many other sites where Serbs were killed during the Second World War, represented not only the concealment of historical facts but also an attempt to erase the identity and collective memory of the victims.
He stressed that remembering Garavice is not an act of revenge or political manipulation but, in his view, a moral and civilizational obligation toward both the victims and future generations.
“We must not allow the victims to be forgotten. However painful, historical truth is the only solid foundation for confronting the suffering endured by the Serb people during the twentieth century,” he said.
Karan also argued that crimes committed against Serbs were too often subsumed under a broader narrative of the victims of fascism without clearly identifying either the victims or the perpetrators.
He added that Republika Srpska’s institutions will continue to promote a culture of remembrance, preserving the memory of Garavice, as well as sites such as Jasenovac, Jadovno, Kozara, and Prebilovci, out of respect for the victims and as a warning to future generations.
Karan further stated that Republika Srpska would continue to oppose what he described as attempts to revise history or diminish the scale of Serb suffering during the Second World War, emphasizing that remembrance should serve truth, historical awareness, and future generations rather than hatred or revenge.
Source: RTRS
