BEĆKOVIĆ: SERB VICTIMS OF CRIMES IN STARI BROD MUST BE REMEMBERED

BELGRADE, MARCH 22 /SRNA/ - Academic Matija Bećković, marking 84 years since the horrific Ustasha crime against Serbs in Stari Brod near Višegrad, said that every victim is sacred and that today’s generations must be worthy of their ancestors.

Bećković told SRNA that, after decades of silence, the victims of the crime in Stari Brod have become visible, thereby ensuring that justice has at least partly been served. "The dead have won this justice we speak of, and we should say what they would say if they could testify about what happened," Bećković stated. He emphasized that the example of Stari Brod reflects the verse by Jovan Dučić: "Heroes bring us joyful victories, but the dead win terrible justice." On March 22, 1942, a mass suffering of Serb civilians who had fled from the Sarajevo-Romanija and Podrinje regions began in Stari Brod near Višegrad, during an operation carried out by the notorious Ustasha "Black Legion" led by Jure Francetić, aimed at establishing the border of the then NDH on the Drina River. During the Ustasha offensive in Stari Brod and Miloševići, more than 6,000 Serbs attempting to cross the Drina and seek refuge in Serbia were brutally killed, while a number of people drowned in the river while fleeing. The memorial museum dedicated to the victims of Stari Brod features 27 sculptures with 39 figures symbolizing the refugee convoy and the entry of Serb mothers carrying children into the swollen Drina River.