Serbian President Boris Tadic stated on Saturday that the Balkans need to become a place of cooperation and reconciliation where hatred and revenge would be wiped out, but he also underscored that Serbia will never forget its victims or agree to see history reshaped.

During a commemoration of victims of Nazism in Jajinci, Tadic underscored that every man and every ethnicity in Serbia, as a country firmly based on anti-Fascist tradition, are accepted as members of society with equal rights.

The president stated that he would continue to defend civil and constitutional rights of all citizens and protect peace and equal opportunities for everyone.

According to Tadic, Serbia will never accept to see evils committed in the past forgotten and will never allow certain groups to be eliminated just because they are different in terms of their ethnicity, confession or ideology.

Those who forget history or do not wish to remember it are doomed to repeat it, Tadic said and added that such individuals are not desirable in Serbia, nor are those who conceal or reshape historical facts.

We are not gathered here because of hatred or desire for vengeance, but we are aware that there are some people in the Balkans who use their hatred and vindictiveness to feed their patriotism and ambition to be more powerful and different from us, Tadic said and warned that the future should not be built on such foundations.