Crimes against humanity committed by Draža II

This article is a list of war crimes and other crimes against humanity committed by the Chancellor of Yermania, Draža II (1884-???). This article contains graphic imagery as well, you have been warned.

Chancellorship:

Draža II became chancellor of Yermania on the 9th of March, 1928 and ended his chancellorship on the 21st of June, 1929, meaning his rule spanned well over a year. Draža began his rule like any other chancellor before him, by trying to gain the trust and respect of the president's cabinet. His crimes started only a little after he became chancellor.

On the 27th of March, 1928, Draža told the President to pass a law which would make it illegal to mock the house of Božidar under any circumstances. This was tested on the 5th of April, as a member of the parliament mocked Draža's decision and told him to be less sensitive. This caused Draža to order the guards to detain him and he was forced to spend a week in jail.

On the 19th of April, 1928, a deputy of the convention was walking back home to his house, little did he know, this would be his last walk. At 10 PM, Draža's loyal officers walked up to the man and beat him to death with the stock of their rifles, as he had been spreading anti-Draža propaganda around.

On the 13th of July, 1928, Draža arrested around 70 soldiers who had apparently been acting traitorous to the government, just because they didn't support the recent actions Draža had been acting out. He had also been using execution tactics, like on the 25th of October, 1928, when Draža had ordered the mass execution of 93 prisoners in the city of Maribor.

Draža had also ordered the execution of the minister of finances, Lukas Zupančič, who hadn't supported Draža in his campaign of executions. Draža reached a kill count of around 3 000 by the end of his rule on the 21st of June, 1929, 3 days before Yermania was officially annexed into Serbia. His crimes would not end here, however.

Yermanian independence rebellion:

On the 16th of February, 1930, at 11 AM, the Yermanian independence rebellion started when Draža and the former last president of Yermania, Petar Potočnik stormed the committee building in the city of Grosuplje, near the city of Ljubljana. After they had stormed it, Draža was appointed to Head of the Yermanian army in rebellion, while Petar appointed himself head of the rebellious government.

Draža would soon start to commit war crimes and other atrocities, this time his decisions were backed up by Aleksej Mlakar and Petar Potočnik, meaning that they would also become wanted war criminals due to their support of Draža's crimes.

He started massacring towns due to their Serb populations, such was the case throughout the 4th of March, 1930 to the 7th of March, 1930, when Draža and his soldiers entered the village of Čušperk, around 7 kilometers away from the city of Grosuplje. The village had a population of 1 600 before the massacre, but after the massacre, the population had shrunk down to 950, after Draža had ordered his lieutenant to massacre 95% of the village's Serb population. They were all killed by shootings and bayoneting.

On the 12th of July, 1930, Draža carried out the worst massacre during the entire war after he and his forces entered the city of Karlovac in preparation for the march on Belgrade which Draža started on the 17th of August, 1930. Once they arrived to Karlovac, Draža told his lieutenant to kill as many Orthodox Croats and Serbs as possible in 24 hours, and by 5 AM on the 13th of July, over 13 000 men, women and children lay dead in their homes or on the streets. Draža's Lieutenant, Aleksandar Krajnc, called Draža at 7 AM to let him know that the massacre was finished and that they did it by shooting, bayoneting and bludgeoning people with the stock of their rifles.

On the 23rd of September, 1930, Draža and his men had arrived in the large city of Banja Luka, which has a huge Serbian population to this day. There, Aleksandar was ordered to massacre more people, which he did by famously drowning over 1 200 people in a lake near the city. They also placed as many people as they could in Serbian orthodox churches and burned them down, killing the people inside them.

On the 17th of October, 1930, Draža opened up a prison camp near Zagreb and ordered his men to start sending Serbian POWs to the camp, where they over 1 000 people were worked to death.

On the 13th of February, 1931, Draža ordered the camp to be destroyed in order for the Serbs to not have any evidence of extermination camps, but the Serbs managed to reach the camp before it was blown up. 60 soldiers were captured and around 600 Serbian soldiers were freed. They did not realize it yet, but Draža had also tried a last ditch attempt to kill all the soldiers in the camp before they reached it.

Aftermath:

Draža was never captured and put to justice, he managed to escape on the 17th of March, 1931 at 8 AM, before the siege that was around the town he was residing in continued. It is unknown if Draža is still alive or not and the question as to his fate may never be answered.

His co-conspirators however, did not have the same ending. Petar had committed suicide on the same day as Draža left, realizing that the situation was hopeless. Aleksej Mlakar took the title of "Head of the Yermanian rebellious government" right after Petar had died, but after a coup, Aleksej was shot 7 times in the chest by Jakob Horvat on the 23rd of March, 1931.

Aleksandar Krajnc had tried to escape on the 11th of March, 1931 but was captured by Serb forces on the 12th of March, 1931 at around 4 AM. Aleksandar was then put on trial and eventually he was executed by firing squad on the 24th of November, 1931 and was buried in a common grave where Petar and Aleksej had also been buried months before.