The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic unveiled the memorial to the victims of the fascist terror committed on 19 October 2022 in the village of Cikote near Loznica.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE SPEECH OF THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA IN ITS ENTIRETY:
Dear citizens,
Dear friends,
We came today to Cikote, to Jadar, to honour the two enormous debts we have owed for eight decades. One is to the 450 people of this beautiful and anguished region, who suffered at the hands of the German occupiers just because they found themselves on the path of their senseless conquest. We also owe a debt to our descendants by leaving them this memory of the villagers of Cikote and this memorial to always remind them of the price of freedom and how important it is that we never forget it.
Some will say that we should have come to Cikote to pay tribute to the victims of one of the most horrible crimes against our people in the Second World War a long time ago. And everyone who says that would be right. But this shows that time and years cannot and must not mean oblivion, nor be the reason to renounce our victims and our history. On the contrary, in a hundred or two hundred years, our sacred duty will be to remember everyone who gave their life and paid the biggest price so we can live in peace and freedom.
This memorial bears the names of all those whose lives were interrupted on 19 October 1941. Before us are all those who until that day had families, plans for the future and best wishes for themselves and their children. For them, all of that disappeared in one day and to make sure it does not disappear forever we had to take the effort to honour their sacrifice with dignity and to remember them and pay tribute to them. That is the least we can do for the children of Jadar, for the hosts and their hardworking wives and parents.
There is no greater tragedy for a nation than to give its victims and its history over to oblivion. Unfortunately, that happens – we are often to blame for it, but sometimes others push us towards that oblivion knowing full well that they are doing us the greatest disservice. We will not allow that and that is why we are here today.
The great Ivo Andric said that each of us dies only once, but great people die twice - when they leave this world and when their legacy disappears. Today we are here to make sure our children, entire families from Cikote, do not die for a second time, because they are the greatest people we have and we must not allow the memory of their sacrifice to disappear.
We are also here today because we want to say clearly and loudly to all of those who are trying to convince us otherwise, that we know what happened in Jadar and the whole of Serbia 80 years ago and that they should not dare make victims out of executioners. Milan Nedic cannot endure as a good memory in the Serbian conscience. I took down his picture in the Government building, because someone wanted to put him among all the other prime ministers of all the Serbian governments throughout history. Milan Nedic was not the Prime Minister of Serbia, he was just an ordinary servant of the Nazi occupier, the one who killed these good people in Jadar and has no place anywhere except on the list of traitors and criminals.
And that is why I have the right to ask Croatia to remove the monuments and the names of streets named after the criminals from Jasenovac, and to remove in Bosnia and Herzegovina everything that celebrates murderers and traitors, and in Montenegro not to parade pictures of those who spelled doom for the Serbian people. Serbia and the Serbian people paid the greatest sacrifices in the First and Second World Wars and it is our duty to remember that and not let anyone teach us that we are wrong. Let them come to Cikote and read these names and let them stop rewriting history and spitting on the millions of our ancestors who fell for freedom.
Today, Serbia lives in peace and will live in peace for many years and many generations to come. It will live like that as long as it remembers its victims and as long as it respects the price they paid for our freedom. If anyone knows how valuable it is to have peace, then it is Serbia and let no one tell us otherwise. Only in peace can we show how strong we are and how much we are really worth.
We also owe great debt of gratitude to all those who erected this memorial, the people of this area, the city of Loznica, SUBNOR and everyone else, because without their work we would not have the opportunity to pay our respects to the victims in Cikote.
Thank you, eternal glory to our fallen people of Cikote!
Death to fascism,
Long live Serbia!
