/ 14 April 2011

WWII guerrilla execution site located

Serbian officials say they have located the site where a World War II royalist guerrilla was executed as a traitor by postwar communist authorities.

Serbian officials say they have located the site where a World War II royalist guerrilla was executed as a traitor by postwar communist authorities.

They say they believe the remains of Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic may have been unearthed and reburied elsewhere after the execution on July 17, 1946.

State Prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic said on Thursday authorities will investigate the suspected grave in Ada Ciganlija, now a recreation area in Belgrade. He says exhumation will follow if they find remains.

Mihailovic, a Yugoslav officer, launched a resistance in 1941 against the Nazis before turning against the communists.

In 1948, United States President Harry Truman posthumously awarded Mihailovic the Legion of Merit award for rescuing US airmen. — Sapa-AP