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

28 AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ATROCITIES

officers spread the fable among their men, that your soldiers cut off the ears, noses and the male organ, and gouged out the eyes of their prisoners. Perhaps they sought to provide ocular demonstration at the expense of some unfortunate Serbian? This does not seem unlikely to me, all the more as, in reply to my articles (published previously in La Gazette de Lausanne), the Austrians always quoted the case of the two cavalrymen, said to have been mutilated in this fashion at Kupinovo by the Serbians.

Another accusation which appears in the articles «for the defence” by the Austro-Hungarians, is that only your troops were guilty of firing on ambulances. Not one of the numerous prisoners of war confirmed this accusation, but on the contrary, Witness No. 45, an Austrian physician, assured me that at Krupanj, the Austro-Hungarian troops fired upon their own Red Cross.

On the other hand, I know that your troops have everywhere respected places which they knew to contain wounded (dwelling-houses, etc.), and the buildings which served as ambulances. Thus the Austrian position at Batara included two houses about 600 metres distant from each other. One served as the officers’ mess ; the other was being used as an ambulance. The latter, however, did not fly the Red Cross flag. As soon as this fact was made known to the Serbs, your authorities sent round a circular, forbidding the bombardment of the flagless ambulance.

Some few prisoners have complained of having been robbed of the money they had in their pockets.