Vucic: Jovanovic performed his duty honourably, his name will be etched in history of Serbia

BELGRADE - At a ceremony at which he presented the Serbian Order of Karadjordje's Star 1st Class to the family of posthumously decorated Serbian Armed Forces Staff Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Jovanovic had lost his life while honourably performing his duty in a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and noted that the NCO's name would be etched in the history of Serbia.

Vucic said Jovanovic was a "true Serbian hero, an always valiant, courageous and decent man, a wonderful parent to Milos and Anastasija, a good husband."

"Anything you say in a time like this, it is all superfluous, and it is all insufficient," he said at the Presidency of Serbia.

Vucic thanked Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles Fernandez - who presented the Spanish Cross of Military Merit with Yellow Decoration to Jovanovic's family - for coming to Serbia with eleven Spanish soldiers who served alongside Jovanovic at the Miguel de Cervantes UN peacekeeping base in Lebanon.

"Many thanks to the Spanish soldiers, many thanks to Serbian soldiers. We have nothing to gain from informing the people of our countries where grenades aimed at the Miguel de Cervantes base had come from, but we must say that Milovan was on honourable duty, a duty that cannot be more honourable, and that he was performing it proudly, courageously and in a dignified manner. "

"'Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life,'" the great Cervantes wrote. My dear Serb Milovan, honourable NCO Jovanovic, you have done more for peace and freedom than all of us have," Vucic noted.

"You did what you were able to do and what you had to do, and what you prepared for all your life. You had to do what you were bound to by a soldier's honour and the oath given to Serbia. You chose that you can and must, governed by the same idea of morality and Serbia that was borne in the hearts of our young corporals, the 1,300 of them. Just like Obilic, you were able to, and you had to, put the lives of others before your own life," Vucic said.

A presidential decree published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia said Jovanovic had been awarded the Order of Karadjordje's Star 1st Class for special merit in representing the Republic of Serbia in the field of security and defence.

Jovanovic was killed on June 4 after a shell hit the UN base.