The Kingdom of serbia : report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first invasion of Serbia

CAUSES OF THE MASSACRES 177

Lieutenant Stibitch, expostulated with Krebs, and asked him why he had burnt these people. Krebs replied that they were comitadjis, and that, moreover, it was none of his business.

No. 94, Reservist, of the 70th Regiment. Captain Lahodny gave them the order to kill without mercy all that was Serbian, both in Serbia and in Bosnia, and also to burn the villages.

No. 95, Corporal of the 28th Regiment, deposes : Lieutenant Jekete, having captured a party of 20 peasants, killed 14 of them by order of the Colonel.

No. 96, squad leader in the 28th, deposes: Lieutenant Muller of the 28th Regiment, 3rd Battn., 9th Company, killed a child and its grandfather with his own hands, then he set fire to the house and threw the two bodies into a room through the window. This Lieutenant also gave the order to finish off the Serbian wounded, as he did not want to be troubled with them. During the first invasion the officers gave the order to kill everything without exception ; during the second, the officers remained well in the rear of the men ; but before a battle they advised their men not to surrender because, so they said, the Serbians mutilated their prisoners of war in every conceivable way.

No. 97, of the 97th Regiment of the line, states that at the beginning of the war, during the first invasion the men were permitted to do everything, burn, kill, ete., “whereas now they are forbidden to burn, but are still allowed to take articles of food.” He further adds that they were given orders to drive out before them the entire civil

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