GHASTLY ATROCITIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1942, Page 4

GHASTLY ATROCITIES

MASS MURDER OF SERBS IN CROATIA MANY VICTIMS HIDEOUSLY TORTURED. TESTIMONY OF ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, January 2. The mass murder of Serbs in Croatia is described in a ghastly record, compiled by the Archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has reached the Yugoslav Legation in London. The Archbishop estimated that to early last August over 180,000 persons had been slaughtered by the orders of Pavelitch and Ustashi. At the village of Korito, 163 peasants were tortured, tied in bundles and thrown into a pit. When it was learned that some were alive, Ustashi threw bombs into the pit. Altogether 226 bodies were thrown into the pit, into which petrol was then poured and set on fire. As a result of similar atrocities in nearby villages, scarcely a Serb remains in the region. Over 600 were killed in and around Krupka between July 25 and 30. Most of the victims were hacked in pieces with knives, axes and scythes and their bodies were thrown into a river. Among hundreds killed in Korenica, many had their ears and noses cut off and were then compelled to eat grass before they were murdered. . Entire villages were annihilated in the Stolac region, where daily 30 to 40 bodies can be seen floating in the river, often including entire families tied together. One clergyman was ordered to dig a grave for his son, who was tortured before him. The clergyman was then made to read the burial service, after which he was tortured and murdered on the same spot. Four men were crucified on the doors of their homes before being mutilated and killed.