Monument to the 1941 uprising in Srb.
Photo: Flammard/Wikicommons.

The remains of civilian victims were exhumed near the village of Srb in Croatia, where there was an uprising against the wartime fascist authorities in 1941.

The bodies were exhumed on Tuesday at a place called Dabin Vrh near Donji Srb, in the presence of Croatia’s veterans’ minister.

A preliminary examination suggested that they were Croatian civilians, residents of the village of Brotnja, who were killed in August 1941.

“We came here after 73 years to exhume the bodily remains of these victims and to bury them,” said veterans’ minister Predrag Matic.

He said that the government believes that every victim “deserves a decent resting place”.

The exact number and identity of the victims buried in the mass grave will only be known after DNA analysis is carried out by the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Zagreb.

According to some media sources in Croatia, the mass grave contains a total of 37 bodies of Croatian civilians who were allegedly murdered by rebel Partisans from the village of Srb. The authorities however have so far not confirmed this.

“The preliminary examination of the bodily remains showed that 19 bodies were thrown in the pit, while the initial information was that the remains of 37 bodies were placed there,” the veterans’ ministry said in a statement.

The 1941 uprising in Srb remains a subject of dispute, with the state classifying it as an anti-fascist Partisan rebellion staged by local Serbs against the Nazi-backed wartime Ustasha regime in Croatia, while others insist it was a revolt by Serb nationalists who murdered Croat civilians.

Mile Bogovic, a bishop from the town of Gospic, who was also present during the exhumation on Monday, said that the discovery of the civilian victims was a reason why the uprising should not be celebrated in Srb.

“During that uprising, the first rifle was fired on July 27, 1941 and after that, this happened,” said Bogovic./balkaninsight/