MEMORIAL SERVICE HELD IN KORETAŠI FOR 1,164 CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF WWII

LOPARE, DECEMBER 7 /SRNA/ – A memorial service was held today in the village of Koretaši in the municipality of Lopare for 1,164 civilian victims of the Ustasha massacre committed in 1941 in the villages of Majevica, Podmajevica, Posavina and Semberija.

Milutin Tešanović, the organiser of the gathering, said that every third victim was a child under the age of 14, and half of the victims were women. He added that at the time, the Ustashas wrote in their reports that after the massacre, not a single house remained standing in six villages of this area. “There was practically no military target here; not a single soldier,” Tešanović told reporters. He is also the president of the association “Sources of Remembrance”. He said the victims were killed in horrific ways between Saint Archangel Michael /Aranđelovdan/ and December 8, 1941, and that the worst massacre took place on November 27, when 104 martyrs from Mirosavci were killed; a total of 456 people were murdered in a single day. Lopare Mayor Rado Savić attended the memorial service for the victims of the Ustasha massacre, emphasizing that such events serve as a reminder to the Serb people to do everything in their power to preserve peace, develop Republika Srpska, and work toward a better future.