The President of the Serb National Council (SNV) Milorad Pupovac and the Mayor of Vrginmost Municipality Milan Vrga laid flowers on Monday at the cemetery in Čemernica and paid tribute to Dmitar Obradović, a peacemaker from Kordun who was killed by Serbian extremists 30 years ago.
Dmitar Obradović, the president of the Vrginmost Municipality Assembly, was killed on July 4, 1992. Obradović, at the head of Vrginmost Municipality, publicly acted with the aim of promoting and preserving peace, tolerance, and respect between Croats and Serbs in Kordun, says SNV’s announced.
“Believing in a peaceful political solution, he advocated for the preservation of dialogue and the common life of the Croatian and Serbian peoples and was one of the rare voices of reason at that time,” said Milorad Pupovac during the ceremony.
“Thirty-six bullets were fired from an ambush at the car that he was driving. The Krajina government accused ‘Croatian terrorists’ of the murder, but it quickly became clear that it was done by extremists from the Serbian ranks who did not want to give peace a chance,” recalled the SDSS (Independent Democratic Serb Party) member of parliament Boris Milošević in his Facebook post on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the tragic event.
SNV says that Obradović systematically worked on finding a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Kordun, which is why he was frequently targeted by Knin’s SDS (Serb Democratic Party) members under the leadership of Milan Babić.
“His people accused him of anti-Serbism, extreme communism, and betrayal of his own people, while on the other hand they called him a ‘Chetnik’ against whom criminal proceedings were initiated. He insisted on creating and maintaining dialogue and coexistence of Croats and Serbs, and he also supported the work of the newly established Serb Democratic Forum”.