War veteran on RTS reporting: My generation accepted their lies, this one stood up to stop it

The students were joined by numerous citizens, as well as bikers and war veterans who have been protecting students since the beginning of the protest. The speech of war veteran Goran Samardzic, who addressed the students from a terrace in Takovska, especially those who came from Novi Pazar to block RTS, became viral on social networks.

"God help us, brothers and sisters! I want us all to greet our dear guests from Novi Pazar, with as-salamu alaykum! My name is Goran Samadzic. Together with our comrades, war veterans, we stood up to protect our children, our students. We all vowed before God that, if necessary, we would lay down our lives and that nothing would happen to these children. Of course, with our biker brothers and sisters," he said at the beginning of his speech.

Samardzic emphasized that, in addition to being a veteran, he is also a a disabled war veteran, since he was wounded in Sarajevo in May 1992, when he was under 21 years old, which, he stated, is the age of the majority of students protesting in Serbia today.

He recalled that his generation got involved in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, as they were told they were "protecting the holy Serbian lands and the Serbian people" against "Turks".

"In April 1992, the bloody Bosnian pot was ignited. All sides were competing to ignite it more," Samardzic reminded and added:

"Our kitchen for spreading hatred and lies is in this building behind us. In this same one in RTS, which still spreads lies and hatred today. My generation accepted those lies. It believed that we were doing the right thing and that we were right and the others were evil. And those others thought the same thing about themselves. And then the wheel of evil started that cannot be stopped and has continued to this day!"

He repeated that his generation "accepted those lies", but that today's generation stood up to stop it.

"They are the ones who spread love and illuminate the future. That future is what we all want and it is our duty to stand up from our failed generations and just follow them," said Samardzic.
"There are no children of ours and yours, they are all our children".

He conveyed a special message for the parents of children from Novi Pazar, a city in Serbia whose population is mostly Bosniaks:

"I want to tell the parents of these children from Novi Pazar not to worry and that there are no more children of ours and yours, they are all our children."