EXECUTIONS IN SERAJEVO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5335, 21 December 1878, Page 7

EXECUTIONS IN SERAJEVO.

The Ntw Free Preis says :—" Military condemnations and executions are now the order of the day at Sarajevo. Itis impossible to give the number of persons executed, for on the day of the entry into Serajevo many were shot who are not included in the number executed. Fearful things are spoken of among the soldiers. Many insurgent prisoners were merely told to close their eyes, and in the next moment half a dozen bullets riddled their bodies. .Now, however, all is done en r&gk. Lately a special court-martial was beld at Serajevo, presided over by General Koffinger,j for the judgment of capital crimes. The number of those who have been tried and executed by court-martial is considerably more than 30, and'there are about four times this number awaiting trial who have little chance of escaping the same fate. There are many civilians included in these executions, and it is not possible to overlook the pleasure taken in this by the .Slav population. It is tho universal opinion here that a race of the Bosuian peoples must disappear. It is no longer doubtful that the Turkish race is one condemned to go to the wall. The Bosnians are not slow in denunciation. The condemned await their fate with resignation. Many of them go to their death joyfully. An elderly Turkish woman went to the place of execution singing a hymn. The crime of this woman, who was shot as au example, was that of twice firing in the open street ab a colonel, but whom she missed. Another prisoner, when he reached the scaffold, quietly asked that ho might be allowed to perform his last religious rites. This waß allowed, and the water was given to him. He washed himself, turning his face to the west, said his prayers, and was afterwards hanged."