The Kingdom of serbia : report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first invasion of Serbia

MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS 103

escape. I spoke to the two survivors. All day long wounded women and children come to me begging for medical assistance.

No. 10

Captain Ilia Pantitch, Officer in command of the 2nd Battalion of the 13th Infantry Regt. reports under the date of the 12/25th of August: —

As soon as the Austrian troops entered the village of Prnjavor, the officer in command caused several local notabilities to be shot, in order to intimidate the rest of the population. All foodstores were at once confiscated. The Austrians pointed their rifles at the villagers in order to make them take to their houses. Then they set fire to the houses. I saw the charred corpse of a woman and her child, both burnt alive. She had clasped it in her arms, and covered it with her skirt, as if in an attempt to protect it from the flames. In another spot I found a woman with one child between her knees and two others by her side. They had been burnt alive. The young girls and young married women were ravaged, not only by the common soldiers, but by the officers as well.

The Austrians, upon two different occasions, carried off people as hostages. The first time they took them across the Drina ; their fate is unknown. The second time they took all the male population from boys of 12 upwards. The greater number of this convoy, however, was able to escape owing to the arrival of our cavalry in pursuit of the Austrians.