MASSACRE OF SERBS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 14

MASSACRE OF SERBS.

ACCUSED CROATS FREED.

AFTER LIGHT GAOL TERMS. * ZAGREB (Yugoslavia)

Lenient sentences were passed at Kerestinec after a five weeks' hearing of charges against 28 peasants accused of having played prominent parts in .a massacre there early in 1936. The massacre was committed by a mob of 3000 Croat peasants, which chased into Kerestinec Castle seven young men whom they suspected of belonging to the comitadjis—A Serbian nationalistic organisation which is accused of responsibility for the killing of many Croats and of intending to assassinate Dr. Yladko Matcliek, Croat leader. \ Club Youths to Death. " The peasants cornered the youths in a bathroom and brutally beat six of them to death with clubs and hatchets. The bodies were hurled into a courtyard.

t Tlie mob then proceeded to the house -of the comitadjis' leader, who was named Buta, shot liim, his wife and their young daughter to death, and burned down their house.

The peasants' suspicions that the youths were comitadjis were justified to a lai'jjc extent by evidence introduced at the trial.

The heaviest sentences Imposed were of six months in gaol each for two of the accused —for disturbing public order. Four others were sentenced to three months in gaol, one to two months, and the remainder were acquitted for lack of evidence. The judge took the view that the peasants had taken part in the mass attack because of their anxiety for Dr. Matchek's life. Serb Indignation. The 28 accused men were immediately released, all the sentences imposed having been covered by the period of detention before the trial began. They went immediately to Dr. Matchek's house in Zagreb, where a large crowd had assembled, and received an ovation. Dr. Matchek shook hands with each of them as the Croat national anthem was sung amid shouts of "Long live free Croatia!"

The leniency accorded to the prisoners, which is attributed to the Serb desire to bring about a settlement of the Croat question, is expected to cause great indignation in Serbia. The massacre has.certainly put an end in Croatia, for the time being at least, to the activities of the Serbian comitadjis.