I have spared no effort in verifying the excesses committed by the Austr-Hungarian Army against the civil population in the invaded territory. In this enedeveavour I employed the following methods: Interrogation of Austro-Hungarian prisoners, interrogation of Serbian eye-witnesses, both civilian and military, the study of the Serbian official reports placed at my disposal by the military authorities, which reports I perued with a view to arriving at statistics, as well as the lists compiled by the civil authorities and obtained by me on the spot or forwarded to me by the said authorities, and finally, the personal inspection of the localities where the massacres and atrocities had been perpatrated.
Eye-witnesses were examined on the spot and in most cases they were my guides to the places where the outrages had taken palce. Thus I was afforded the opportunity of verifying the truth of thier statemnets by actual and personal inspection. besides this I have been at pains by corroborative evidence to assure myself of the reliability of my witnesses and of the authenticity of the facts laid before me.
I have thought it advisible, although you are in possession of the original documents, likewise to include copies of some of the military reports in this paper.
In most cases these reports agree with the information I was able to obtain elswhere. Yet, I think that they are less reliable with regard to certain occurrences, than the evidence I have gathered from eye-witnesses. As a matter of fact, these reports were made from life, so to say, or, correctly speaking, directly after the excesses had been committed. It is an undeniable fact that at the time all minds were wrought up to a great pitch of excitement, and that since then the imagination has undergone the inevitable reaction, with the result that both such incidents as had been observed by the officers themselves, and such as had been reported to them by eye-witnesses, would bear a fuller investigation.
As regards the statements I have personally taken from eye-witnesses, I believe that I may safely assert that they represent the truth. First of all, the personal investigations I was in many cases able to make, confirm them entirely. Secondly, the minds of the witnesses, by far the most of whom peasants, had calmed down since the time when the Austrians committed the atrocities. The danger of exaggeration from excitement, which is so natural in the first moment, was to a great extent eliminated. I also noted that the Serbs peasants are very reserved indeed, and I am convinced that they are more inclined to say too little than too much. Finally, misfortune has depressed them to such an extent (without however depriving them of their courage in fighting the enemy) that they have almost come to accept the evils that have fallen upon them as natural and inevitable. This is a state of mind which does not predispose to exaggeration. Thus the number of the wounded, which I adduce in the statistical notes at the foot of the chapter, certainly falls far below the actual number, because the great majority of the victims did not report their case to the authorities. I have had proof of this fact in many localities, where I asked for the number of the wounded. The mayor or his deputy would give me a figure which my personal inquiry proved to be too small by far. Thus, at Lipolist the mayor gave the number of the wounded as 5. Within one hour's search through the village, I had found 17, and I am certain that there were even more. It is also to be noted that even where official lists of the killed and wounded have been drawn up, the number of the victims does not seem to be absolutely fixed; in other words, I think there are many mor evictims than appear in the lists.
I have also endeavoured to ascertain the number of the cases of rape committed by the army of invasion. This was even a more difficult task than to arrive at the number of the wounded. You, Monsieur le President, are well aware of popularr sentiment in your country in all matters touching the honour of the family, and you know that it is impossible, or at least, exceedingly difficult for a girl who has been outraged to find a husband. the families endeavour to conceal as far as possible the misfortune tha has befallen them in the violation of their women. hence the utmost absolute impossibility of ascertaining the number of women who had been subjected to lewd assaults from the soldiery of the hostile army.
I am convinced that the number of violated women and young girls is very great, and judging by what I saw during my enquiry, I do not think that I am mistaken in saying that in many of the invaded villages almost all women from the very youngest to the very oldest have been violated. Upon this matter I have collected and included in this report a certain number of statements and typical depositions. ...
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Breziak consists of three villages, viz.: Slatina, Donja and Gornja Nedeljitza. In this district the Austrians killed 54 persons in varoiuos ways. Most of them were disembowelled with great sabres that were carried by your prisoners; this weapon has the following dimensions:
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width of blade, 5 cm; thickness of the back of the blade, 0.7 cm; length
of blade, 46 cm; total length of the sabre, 63 cm. I append the names of
some of the killed, with a brief specification of their wounds:
Anitza Yezditch, aged 32, eyes put out, nose and ears cut off.
Simo Yezditch, aged 14, nose and ears cut off.
Yelka Domitch, aged 13, nose and ears cut off.
Tzvetko Pavlovitch, eyes put out.
Krsman Kalabitch, aged 56, eyes put out, nose and ears cut off.
Smiliana Vasilievitch, aged 48, eyes put out.
Mirosava Vasilievitch, aged 21, violated by about 40 soldiers, genital organs cut off, her hair pushed down the vagina. She was finally disembowelled, but only died immediately after this being done.
Lazar Petrovitch, aged 46, one hand cut off and eyes put out. (*)
Militza Petrovitch, aged 45, breasts cut off. (*)
Dobria Petrovitch, aged 18, eyes put out. (*)
Stanka Petrovitch, aged 14, eyes put out, nose cut off.(*)
Ana Petrovitch, aged 7, ears cut off. (*)
(*) One family. They were found in a ditch with their dog, pinioned and all died together, includin the dog.
Zhivko Pavlovitch, aged 50, cut in pieces. (**)
Stanitza Pavlovitch, aged 50, cut in pieces, and eyes put out as well (**)
Zorka Pavlovitch, aged 18, cut in pieces. (**)
(**) One family.
Nikola Tomitch, aged 63, many bayonet wounds
Zhivko Madjarevitch, aged 70, eyes put out
Stanoie Madjarevitch, aged 40, ears cut off
Yotso Milovanovitch, aged 90, skin cut to ribbons
Milosav Obradovitch, aged 18, nose and ears cut off, eyes put out.
Dragoljub Isitch, aged 18, nose and ears cut off
Zhivko Peitcitch, aged 70, eyes put out, riddled with wounds
Svetozar Tomitch I, aged 54, eyes put out
Svetozar Tomitch II, aged 60, nose and ears cut off
Tzvetko Yakitch, aged 23, eyes put out
Mileva Yakitch, aged 17, violated, then killed.
Sreten Rositch, aged 26, slashed and riddled with wounds
Milivoie Rositch, aged 25 (***)
Sava Rositch, aged 50 (***)
Mihailo Rositch, aged 18 (***)
Stana Rositch, aged 50 (***)
(***) Eyes put out, riddled with bayonet wounds
Ljubomir Madjarevitch, aged 16, nose cut off, eyes put out
Stanitza Shakitch, aged 24, violated several times and bayoneted
Dragomir Shakitch, aged 35, violated several times, transpierced with a bayonet
Stana Shakitch, aged 15, violated, several bayonet wounds
Mileva Gaitch, aged 44, covered with wounds of various kinds.
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All these atrocities were perpetrated by the Austrians on their arrival
on August 3rd. No one among the civil population had fired upon the
enemy, and most of the villagers had taken flight. Almost all those who
remained were massacred. The bodies of Zhivko Boitch, aged 70, and his
daughter-in-law, Pelka, aged 25, and her infant, aged 4 months, were
found later on. The bodies had been cut to pieces. An Austrian general
Staff had its headquarters in Breziak. The Yadar districts lost about 800
persons in killed and missing. Still this number does not include the
atrocities committed by the Austrians among the population of the two
communes still occupied by the troops pf Francis Joseph (October 1914).
