CRIME WITH NO BULLET SHOT: VILLAGE WHERE CHILDREN WHERE CHILDREN ARE KILLED WITHOUT MERCY

BANJA LUKA, JULY 22 /SRNA/ - In the village of Drakulić, on the fateful 7th of February 1942, the Ustashas killed at least 2,300 Serbs in just one day, of whom more than 500 were children under the age of 14, meaning that every fifth victim was a child, said Lazar Lukajić, author of the book "Friars and Ustashas Slaughter," who has been researching the fate of Serbian children in the NDH for decades.

After the crimes in the Rakovac mine near Banja Luka on February 7, 1942, the Ustashas, with the reinforcements they had received, moved into the surrounding Serbian villages, and Drakulić was the first in line for the most monstrous killings.

They were aided by local Croats, who were summoned to the church in Petrićevac the day before the massacre and from there were taken to the Ustasha camp in Banja Luka, where they were given a dinner. After dinner, all the Croats from Drakulići present were "sworn with the Ustasha oath".

At dawn in Drakulić, the Ustashas took peaceful peasants, women, children and the elderly out of their homes, gathered them into crowds and slaughtered them with knives and axes, and those who still showed signs of life were beaten to death with blows from a pickaxe. Small children were also killed in the same way.

The killings were carried out only with cold weapons, so as not to create an opportunity for the population of neighboring villages to escape and at the same time to avoid alarm in the city. The killings lasted until noon. At least 2,300 people were killed.

VIKTOR GUTIĆ MASTERMINDED THE CRIME AGAINST SERBS

The terrible crime in Drakulić, as well as in Šargovac and Motike, was masterminded by Dr. Viktor Gutić, a lawyer and Croatian politician during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and later an Ustasha functionary and commissioner of the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/ for Bosnian Krajina. In addition to him, the criminals were led by Fra Miroslav Filipović, known as Fra Satan, and Josip Mišlov, a lieutenant in the Pavelić Guard, as well as Roman Catholic friars from Banja Luka.

There are numerous testimonies about Gutić's monstrosities, and one of them is the testimony of Drago Stijaković, one of the three sons of Mile Stijaković, a prominent householder in Drakulić. Mile had three adult sons, Ilija, Simo, and Drago, who survived the massacre of February 7, 1942.

"It was February 7th, it was early. I still remember my sister Jovanka shouting - `Here they come!` We all ran to the window. And indeed, a group of Ustashas were walking down the street towards our house. With them was the mayor of the municipality, Andrija Golub. We barely recognized him in the morning fog. Although Andrija's presence calmed us a little, my father said to me, Ilija and Simo: `You in the barn. Quickly!`" Drago states in his testimony recorded in the book "Friars and Ustashas Slaughter".

He fondly remembers how Mile's father began to calm the rest of the family: "They won't do anything to us, old and weak. They're looking for men's heads. Young men. They won't do anything to us."

"The three of us went out the opposite door and went to the barn. Our sister Jovanka, who was 17-18 years old, went with us. The Ustashas didn't see us. We crawled under the manger. Jovanka covered us with straw, hay, and wood shavings. Then she went back into the house. The barn was a log cabin, so you could barely see the yard and house between the logs. I was looking down from under the manger toward the house. There was a dirt path between the barn and the house. No one from the outside could see me," says Drago.

As soon as Jovanka returned inside the house, Drago recalls, Andrija arrived at the door with three Ustashas.

The Ustashas asked Mile about his sons, and when he said they weren't there, Andrija didn't believe him and threatened to take everyone from the house for questioning.

According to the testimony, one of the Ustashas grabbed Mile under the arm, closed the door of the house and took him behind the building.

"A short while later, another Ustasha entered the house and took out the woman, our mother. Then they took out the children one by one, in their caps and vests, in the order they stood up and were by the stove. None of them knew where they were being taken. No one even cried. They obediently went to be questioned," says Drago.

Drago points out that at the time he did not know where they were being taken, but later he saw the Ustashas conducting an "interrogation" in the snow behind a wooden building.

"They hit them in the head with axes. Everyone's heads were cut. No one even cried out. Then they cut everyone's throats. So that no one would be left alive. I saw that when the Ustashas left," he testified.

He remembers that the Ustashas were the last to bring out his sister Jovanka, whom they asked about her brothers, and since she remained silent, they started hitting her with an axe and cut off both of her hands.

"Then she collapsed on the snow. The Ustashas lifted her up, unbuttoned her blouse and began to throw snow on her bare chest and into her mouth. They laughed. She began to cry. The Ustashas slashed her breasts with a knife and shouted: `Tell me about your brothers!`, to which Jovanka replied - `I don't know!`

She fell on the snow. The Ustashas stabbed her and left. I can see everything through the dried, crooked log. Simo and Ilija can't see anything. The logs were well-joined with them. They can only hear what is being said in front of the house. That's close. About twenty meters away. You mustn't move. If one of us had coughed, they would have found us and killed us. When everything became quiet, we left the barn. We came to the house. Jovanka was lying. The snow was red next to her. The blood had curdled," says Drago.

He remembers going with his brothers to a small building behind the house.

"In front of the building lay a pile of corpses with their heads cut off. And of them were slaughtered. The snow around them was red. It was melting a little from the hot blood. There was no one outside the pile. Why were they everywhere going to piles?

The three of us brothers were stunned. No one said a single word. It was as if we were mute. We just looked at each other. We quickly let the cattle out of the barn, spread the grain, spilled the brandy and set the house and barn on fire. Then we ran into the forest. No one saw us. That's how we somehow survived," says Drago.

All three Stijaković brothers - Ilija, Simo and Dragan, died as partisans in the First Krajina Battalion. Their hearth was extinguished forever. /to be continued/