USTASHA MASSACRE OF 12 BOYS IN GREĐANI NEAR OKUČANI

BANJA LUKA, MAY 5 /SRNA/ - On May 8, 1944, the Ustaše committed a massacre of 12 Serbian boys from the village of Gređani, near Okučani in Western Slavonia, who were tending cattle. Atrocities against Serbs in this region were repeated in early May of the 1990s, during the Croatian Army and police Operation Flash.

During World War II, the Ustaše forcibly deported several hundred residents, including the elderly, women, and children, from the villages of Gređani, Čovac, and Vrbovljani to the concentration camps of Jasenovac, Stara Gradiška, Mlaka, and Uštica, from where most never returned. Before the war of the 1990s, the local school and football club in the village of Gređani bore the name "May 8," in memory of the brutal Ustaše crime committed in the NDH. During former Yugoslavia, a commemoration was held every year on May 8 at the monument to the fallen villagers, accompanied by a cultural program featuring performers from Nova Gradiška. In the name of brotherhood and unity among the Yugoslav peoples, the former communist authorities concealed and persistently kept silent about Ustaše crimes against Serbs. As a result, the monument in Gređani stated that the atrocity was a result of a "fascist terror," rather than acknowledging it as a brutal Ustaše crime against innocent Serbian children. During the recent war, the residents of Gređani experienced the same fate at the hands of "Tuđman's soldiers," forcing them to leave their ancestral homes in Western Slavonia on May 1, during the Croatian Army and police Operation Flash. Members of the Croatian Army set fire to the local school in the village, which has not been rebuilt to this day. On September 5, 1991, members of the Croatian paramilitary unit "Tigers" committed a horrific crime against dozens of Serbian civilians and members of the Serbian territorial defense, many of whom are still listed as missing. They left behind utter devastation - houses riddled with bullets, shattered windows and broken doors, belongings scattered everywhere. On the façades, they had spray-painted "Tigrovi" /Tigers/, the letter U, and the message "We will return," clearly revealing the identity of Tuđman's fighters. Older residents of villages in Western Slavonia say they experienced the same fate as in 1941, when Pavelić's Ustashas, aided by neighbors, killed them on their doorsteps and deported them to the death camps of Stara Gradiška, Jasenovac, and Mlaka. The Church of St. Petka, built in 1752 in Gređani, was destroyed during the Second World War. The construction of a new church began after the war but was never completed. A small part of the residents of Gređani celebrate their patron saint's day, Saint Mark's Day, on May 8.