07.05.2019.
Opening of the Exhibition “Children in War” in the Central Military Club
Minister Vulin: Killing children is more than a crime; it is a desire to exterminate a nation
Killing children is more than a crime, more than human depravity – Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin sent the message at today’s opening of the exhibition “Children in war” in the Great Gallery of the Central Military Club of the Serbian Armed Forces.
- Killing children is a desire to make one nation disappear, to exterminate it, to obliterate it. Killing children means killing the future of the entire nation that has to disappear. That is why they killed Serbian children even in wars in which they did not even think about doing it to some other nations.
Minister Vulin sees the history of Serbian people as a history of struggle for freedom and history of wars which the Serbs did not cause nor asked for, but which they had to wage only to survive. He reminded that throughout history Serbian children were killed on their doorsteps, in their houses, in the places where they lived.- The Serbs have never gone to someone else’s houses, to other nations’ countries, the Serbs have never gone after some other children, but sadly, our children did fall prey to others. They have done it since the tribute in blood, up to 1999, the year of NATO aggression and after everything that happened to the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija by Shiptar terrorists after NATO aggression – Minister Vulin stated, adding that the Serbian people, which had kept its children in their homes would never do to others what had been done to it.
According to him, the purpose of this and similar exhibitions was to preserve the memory, but they also have the purpose of confronting all those nations whose ancestors killed Serbian children with their deeds.
- The Independent State of Croatia, and all those who wish to reinstate it, should come here, to look into the eyes of our murdered children and then to try to prove to themselves, to convince themselves, not us, that Alojzije Stepinac is a saint, that a man who blessed the crimes of Ustashe, who converted Serbian children to Catholicism without asking how they had become orphans did not deserve to be a saint, because the person who allowed that the genocide committed by Ustashe and in Jasenovac is not spoken about, should not be a saint. Let them look into the eyes of our children and let them say that the children were just collateral damage and nothing more – Minister Vulin said.
At the end, Minister Vulin stated that everyone should see the exhibition “Children in War” in order to know the evil against which we should fight.- Everyone should see this exhibition. Children in particular should see it, in order to understand what kind of evil their nation faced, but the children of other nations should see it as well. I want to believe that no Croatian child, if it had seen the pictures of Ustashe terror in Jasenovac, would be able to sing at Tompson’s concert or wear Ustasha hat. That is why one should confront the evil, to know what it is that one should fight against – Minister Vulin concluded.
The exhibition “Children in war” is a documented testimony to the children, the victims of wars from 1914 to 1999. It was set up jointly by the Ministry of Defence – Media Centre “Odbrana”, Museum of the Victims of Genocide and Fund “Little Milica Rakić from Batajnica”, in the framework of the programme of marking the 20th anniversary of defence against NATO aggression on FR Yugoslavia.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Biljana Pašić, who addressed the present on behalf of the organisers, the exhibition is a testimony to the hardness of live and suffering of the youngest, who did not know why they were part of the cruel “game” of the adults, the game without rules, without mercy, and usually without any sense. She said “If a soldier dies, one can say that he was prepared for that. If an elderly person dies, one can say that the person has already done a lot of things that he or she desired, left the work and memories behind. But, if a child dies, innocent, a flower that is yet to bloom, then it is a crime that must never be forgotten.”
Archival material of the exhibition consists of photographs, writings and documents divided in four thematic segments: The First World War, the Second World War, wars of the 90s in the territory of the SFRY and NATO bombardment of FR Yugoslavia in 1999. Every single segment is accompanied by texts and graphic-architectonic solutions of the exhibition.
Authors of the exhibition “Children in war” are Velјko Đurić Mišina, Jasmina Tutunović Trifunov and Nenad Antonijević. The authors of the set up are Ozarija Marković Lašić and Nebojša Vasilјević, while the author of the music for the exhibition is Aleksandar Marković. Exhibition coordinator is Jelena Knežević on behalf of the Media Centre “Odbrana”.Opening of the exhibition in the Central Military Club was attended by State Secretary Aleksandar Živković, Acting Assistant of the Minister for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović, numerous generals and officers, representatives of veteran associations, institutions of culture and art.
The exhibition is open every day in the Great Gallery of the Central Military Club from 11 to 19 hours, apart from Sunday and it will last until 1st July. The entrance is free.
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