THE FOLLOWING IS THE SPEECH OF THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA IN ITS ENTIRETY:

“Today we say goodbye to Dusan Ckrebic, fighter, builder, engineer, politician and top leader. We say goodbye to a great patriot, communist and socialist, the last among the great witnesses and participants of a time that marked the lives of so many generations. By saying goodbye to Dusan Ckrebic, we are not saying goodbye to the time on which he left an indelible mark, because our Dusan made an effort during his life to make sure that glorious time is not forgotten. It was not enough for him to dedicate his life to building a better society, he knew full well that he had to pass on his experience and wisdom to us, younger people, so we could know how to appreciate the works of his generation and to learn how to overcome the obstacles we run into.

I had the great privilege to receive first-hand advice, paternal recommendations and friendly criticism from Dusan Ckrebic, my friend and teacher. I could not have had a better or more well-meaning teacher than him, and I am eternally grateful to him for it.

If you think you do not know anything about Dusan Ckrebic's, they need not worry. It is enough to know the history of this country from the World War II onwards and you will find Dusan Ckrebic in everything in any way important. At the age of 17 he volunteered for the Syrmian Front, he chased the Nazis and their servants all the way to Zagreb and Trieste and liberated his country, for which he was decorated. He built the Samac-Sarajevo railway with his Kragujevac youth work brigade. He was a student in Moscow at the time of the Inform-Bureau Resolution and split with Stalinism. He did not think twice, he returned home to build his country and its independence.

Whatever he did, whatever duty he took on, he climber to the very top - President of the Chamber of Commerce, President of the Executive Council of Serbia, Speaker of the Serbian Assembly, President of the Presidency of Serbia, President of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia. The face of Serbia changed at the time when Dusan Ckrebic was its first man - the highway from Belgrade to Batocina was built, the Belgrade-Bar railway was completed, the construction of the Clinical Centre in Belgrade began, the decision was made to build the Nikola Tesla B Thermal Power Plant and Djerdap 2 Hydroelectric Power Plant, the Sava Centre was built, the University of Kragujevac was founded. And something he was especially proud of - the construction of the Temple of Saint Sava was approved, thanks to his personal effort and desire for Serbia to repay a great debt to the founder of its church and statehood. He did not give in to any of the pressures and threats he suffered because of it and we can only imagine the pressures. At the suggestion of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Dusan Ckrebic will be buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens.

Dusan Ckrebic, as I knew him, did not stop when his political engagement was finished. His analyses and re-examinations of the times he himself participated in "from the front row" - are something most precious and honest that we could hear in a sea of other voices. He was a communist, but not a dogmatist, he was also a socialist, but not at the cost of compromise on the supreme ideals of solidarity and justice. He was also a great patriot, a Serb in the noblest sense of the word, a fighter for great ideals and a fighter for his country and his people.

I want to thank him once again, here for the last time, for every word he said to me, for every piece of advice and even for every criticism. They all were words of an older friend of mine and I absorbed them because they were a compass which would not let me go astray. We will keep the memory of Dusan Ckrebic, of everything he did for his country and everything he taught us about how to continue his great life mission.

Eternal glory and thanks be to our Dusan Ckrebic! "