24.03.2024.
Minister Vučević attends unveiling of memorial plaques commemorating new Kosovo heroes in church in Niš
To mark the 25th anniversary of the defence against NATO aggression in 1999, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Miloš Vučević, acting as an envoy of the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, attended the unveiling and consecration of 19 memorial plaques dedicated to the memory of new Kosovo heroes in the crypt of the Church of Saint Basil of Ostrog in Niš today.
Chief of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, General Milan Mojsilović, also attended the ceremony, and Bishop Arsenije of Niš carried out the consecration and held a memorial service for the victims with the help of the clergy.On this occasion, Minister Vučević addressed the audience, saying that the purpose of the gathering in the Church of St. Basil of Ostrog was to honour 1,139 new Kosovo heroes, members of our armed forces and police who had sacrificed their lives for Serbia's freedom in the period from 1998 to 2003.
- As a token of our deepest gratitude for the sacrifice they made for the sake of their families, we have come to pray in silence to the Lord to grant their souls eternal rest in paradise and to take them under his wing along with the knights of Saint Lazar, the holy Prince of Serbia. Let us pray to Basil of Ostrog to intercede on their behalf. And it is no coincidence that this church is named after Saint Basil - said the minister of defence.It would be better, he said, if the names of the Kosovo heroes had not been inscribed on these memorial plaques and if "their hands, instead of picking up weapons, had continued to work and create for the benefit of their neighbours and our entire nation, if they had raised their children to be honourable people and patriots".
- But instead of raising and feeding their children, they, like many heroes of the past, were forced by an evil cause and injustice to protect and defend what was most sacred to them - their families and the land of their ancestors. Suffering was their path and it did not pass them by. They knew, as we do, dear brothers and sisters, that freedom and peace were never given to us. On the contrary, we have paid dearly for them. They knew that if they had not been in that terrible place - that the enemy would attack their families, houses, and churches. They knew that no one else would defend our values but ourselves and that we had to fight for them ourselves or we would disappear - Minister Vučević said.According to the minister, our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers died so that we could be free citizens today.
- Had our enemies looked into the soul of our people at least once, they would have seen a historical regularity and a feature of our collective consciousness - Serbs love freedom! And so, the descendants of the freedom-loving and insubordinate responded with a pure heart to the call of their motherland Serbia and remained immortal and undefeated in its defence. Exactly a quarter of a century ago, Serbia was attacked by ferocious and powerful forces and their advance party made up of terrorists. The greatest military force in the history of mankind attacked us, trampling on international law, their own laws, and most importantly, on basic moral principles - said Minister Vučević.
According to him, it is unutterably sad that the majority of them were those "with whom, until a few decades ago, we fought side by side, fighting for ideals such as a free world and basic human dignity."- They attacked us brutally thinking that they would quickly and easily destroy us, destroy our faith, break our will and divest us of our strength to defend ourselves. In their desire to humiliate us and steal the most sacred piece of our land, they launched thousands of bombs and missiles at our army from afar, from often immeasurable distances, without the courage to face our army on the ground. And since they could not defeat our army, they attacked those who could not escape - children, women, the poor, the elderly, residential areas, industry, and infrastructure. Our southern capital, Niš, and its citizens were also witnesses and victims of the bestiality of the aggressors. We must never forget the civilian victims, who I suppose the villains considered legitimate targets, such as the pregnant Ljiljana Spasić, who went to the market to buy groceries between two airstrikes. On the feast day of St. Basil of Ostrog in 1999, thanks to the will of God, none of the residents of Duvanište, where we are today, were killed by the multitude of cluster bombs that NATO humanitarians dropped on this beautiful Serbian town. Eyewitnesses say that just before the attack, an old grey-haired man warned the children to get away from the place where they were playing. No one has ever seen him before or since. The people believe that it could not have been anyone other than St. Basil of Ostrog - said the minister of defence, adding that this church had been built out of gratitude to God for his infinite mercy. Out of gratitude to the sacrifice of our fallen heroes, he said, today we add their glorious names to this church.
Minister Vučević thanked the Diocese of Niš and the wartime commander General Vladimir Lazarević and his comrades in arms, as well as ministers Gašić and Selaković for the initiative to erect these memorial plaques.- Twenty five years have passed and we are still righting the wrong done to the people who gave everything they had for our freedom. We were silent for too long, perhaps out of desire not to offend the aggressors by mentioning our victims and their exploits. So that their troubled conscience would not be stirred for a moment. A little over a decade ago, we finally stopped being silent. I can freely say that this is the most important thing Serbia has achieved in the last decade, under the leadership of the then prime minister, and now President Aleksandar Vučić, together with the leadership of Republika Srpska and our holy church. We will continue to honour our heroic armed forces and police, volunteers and innocent civilians, all our fallen service members, all innocent victims who met their deaths in the chaos of that frenzied aggression. And we will keep calling the things that happened by their right names. We owe at least that much to those who bled for the freedom of Serbia, for our Kosovo and Metohija, to those who fell, but also to those who survived and are with us today. After all, brothers and sisters, we owe it to ourselves! If we forget our victims, we will forget who we are. And if we forget who we are, God will forget us. May God give peace and eternal rest to those who fell asleep in the Lord and to the new Kosovo heroes who died for the freedom and honour of Serbia. Long live Kosovo and Metohija! Long live Serbia! - said Minister Vučević.
According to the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Nikola Selaković, the purpose of this event is to celebrate "the victory over the greatest Serbian enemy - oblivion."- Over the past 25 years, Serbia has experienced both the heroic defence of the homeland and the mass exodus of its people from Kosovo and Metohija following the arrival of international peacekeeping forces. It has also experienced the March pogrom, it has survived the departure of Montenegro from our common state and the unilateral declaration of the so-called independence of Kosovo. It has experienced and survived the shameful and purposeless negotiations, but it has also lived to see its people find themselves again and choose the ones who will defend, protect and lead them into the future. It has lived to see its people rise up to their feet. After a few years, Serbia started taking care of the families of fallen soldiers, the war-disabled and the soldiers who survived the defence of the homeland and the fight against the terrorist insurrection. The time has come for us to unveil, here in Niš, on the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the NATO aggression against our homeland, 19 marble plaques inscribed with the names of 1,139 soldiers, policemen and volunteers - said Minister Selaković. Niš has been given the honour of being the first Serbian city to receive these names for safekeeping.
According to the Minister of the Interior, Bratislav Gašić, it is no coincidence that memorial plaques with the names of 1,139 members of the army and police who gave their lives for the freedom of their homeland from 1998 to 2003, will be kept here in the Church of St. Basil of Ostrog in Niš.- Those who trampled on international law, justice, moral principles and sense of common humanity, trying to destroy Serbian dignity, dared to bomb the beautiful and defiant Duvanište on May 12, 1999, the feast day of our great saint. Saint Basil protected the residents of Duvanište with his righteous and powerful hand and no one was hurt, and as a token of gratitude to him, the locals built this church. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the memory of courage, honour, bravery and heroism of Serbian heroes should be preserved in this very church. Each of our 1,139 heroes, our knights, deserve their names to be said out loud, and their feats and sacrifices to be remembered with gratitude - said Minister Gašić. It is our duty, he added, to preserve their memory and to be grateful to them, so that we can teach future generations the values they passed on to us - courage, loyalty, solidarity, selflessness and togetherness.
General Vladimir Lazarevic (retd), wartime commander of the Priština Corps during the NATO aggression and former commander of the Third Army of FR Yugoslavia, also addressed the gathering. He said that, after 25 years, the testaments to the courage of Kosovo heroes were brought to the crypt of Prince Lazar’s church.- These testaments to the heroism, inscribed on 19 marble plaques, speak of the crimes of 19 NATO members. They testify to the eternal gratitude of the motherland, saying that freedom is the most expensive thing and that it has no price. Thanks to the heroic defence put up by the army, police and people, the lives of the defenders of the homeland were saved. The heroes of Kosovo should never be forgotten, because forgetting them would be the most serious crime against the ancestors and a sin against the descendants - said General Lazarević, adding that during the war, our forces opposed the greatest power in the world using our own secret weapon - boundless patriotism, heroism, morality and effective command.
As part of the ceremony, Minister Vučević laid a wreath next to the memorial plaques in the crypt of the Church of St. Basil of Ostrog.The memorial plaques were erected under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. They are inscribed with the names of 1,139 members of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the interior, who died from 1998 to 2023, as well as their years of birth and death and the names of war units they belonged to.
On the initiative by the Niš subdivision of the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia and the Committee for Nurturing the Tradition of the Liberation Wars of Serbia of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, memorial plaques were made to commemorate the heroes who died in the period from 1998/1999, during the defence against NATO aggression on our country in Kosovo and Metohija, to 2023 - in the Ground Safety Zone. The memorial was erected in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Niš and the clergy of the Church of St. Basil of Ostrog in Niš.
The unveiling and consecration of the memorial plaque were attended by government ministers, members of the boards of the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff, veterans, families of fallen soldiers, members of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, representatives of state institutions and the local self-government, veterans' associations and numerous citizens.
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