The truth about one of the most horrific crimes against Serbian civilians during World War II, the massacre in Stari Brod and Milo\u0161evi\u0107i from April 1942, suppressed for decades, is slowly coming to light. Milorad \u0106ebi\u0107 (83), one of the few who survived the Usta\u0161e rampage, testifies about the horrors he witnessed with his own eyes as a ten-year-old boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview for \u201cVe\u010dernje novosti,\u201d \u0106ebi\u0107 reveals a harrowing story that took place in a spring that forever marked the history of the Drina region, and about which silence had to be kept for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serbs in eastern Bosnia resisted Usta\u0161e attacks until early 1942. The defense was organized and led by pre-war officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013The people chose Sergeant Radomir Ne\u0161kovi\u0107 to be the commander of the Serbian defense, because Muslims were already in Usta\u0161e uniforms. The Serbian territorial defense, which preserved us at the beginning of the war, became part of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland. There were no Partisans. Only us, the Serbs. My father was killed in the autumn of 1941, defending the village from the Usta\u0161e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the spring of 1942, the NDH authorities launched an offensive to exterminate the Serbs, from Sarajevo to the Drina. Tens of thousands of refugees from Fo\u010da, Zvornik, Rogatica, Vi\u0161egrad, Han Pijesak, Kladanj, Sokolac, Olovo and Pale poured into a column trying to reach Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013The roads were clogged with livestock and carts carrying all belongings and the helpless. The Italians, who guarded the Vi\u0161egrad bridge, demanded that people separate from the wagons, allegedly so that the passage would not be blocked. Those who obeyed were taken to the German camp at Staro sajmi\u0161te, which was located in the NDH, and not, as some claim today, in Nedi\u0107\u2019s Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n