VICTIMS FROM KORIĆKA PIT WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

BILEĆA, JUNE 3 /SRNA/ - Innocent victims of of the Ustasha crime in the village of Korita, near Bileća, will never be forgotten, it was said today in the village, where a memorial service was held for more than 130 Serbian civilians from that region who were killed and thrown into the Korićka Pit by the Ustashas 85 years ago.

A liturgy was held at the Memorial Temple near the Korićka Pit, and it was attended by many residents of Bileća, Gacko and Herzegovina. Mayor of the Municipality of Bileća Miodrag Parežanon said that the carved names of the victims on the monument in Korita represent a reminder and said that all of them will never be forgotten He reminded that the inhabitants of Korita and the surrounding villages died at the brutal hands of their neighbors whom they knew, and that they were brought to the pit by deception and were unimaginably tortured and thrown into it. Parežanin noted that everyone should convey to the younger generations the truth about that great crime, so that the gathering on the days when the memory of their suffering is commemorated would be bigger every year. Descendant of the victims, Miloš Svorcan, said that the inhabitants of Korita suffered only because they were Serbs and that they were tricked, tortured and thrown into the Korićka Pit. He pointed out that these were advanced householders who lived well and worked hard, and the Ustasha's goal was to destroy that. The organizers of the commemoration of 85 years since the suffering of the Korita Serbs are the Municipal Administration of Bileća and the Church Municipality of Avtovac. The Korićka Pit near Bileća is one of the largest killing grounds of the Serbian people in Herzegovina, where the Ustashas threw more than 130 innocent Serbs, men, old men and boys. That crime was committed by Muslim Ustashas from the neighboring town of Fazlagića Kula, near Gacko, on the night between June 3 and 4, 1941. The remains of the Korita victims owere taken out of the pit in 1953, when, based on the 180 skulls found, it was established that the number of victims of Korićka Pit was significantly higher. Most of the victims were locals from the Svorcan, Bjelica, Starović, Trklja, Šarović, Šakota, Glušac, Rogač, Jakšić, Dumnić, Kovačević, Kurdulija, Kosnić, Milošević, Milović, Nosović and Radan families. The oldest victim was 80-year-old Jevto Svorcan, and the youngest was 14-year-old Kosta Glušac. A small chapel was built near the Korićka Pit, and the first memorial to the Korići victims in the center of the village was erected in 1966. A sculpture by academic sculptor Nandor Glid from Belgrade was placed on the monument in 1991, when half a century had passed since the crime. No one was ever held accountable for that monstrous crime against the innocent Serbian people of that region, and the truth about it was concealed for a long time.