A Serb in Chalk River

Posted By Chase, Sean

Posted 1 month ago

Lying just past the gates of the Forest View cemetery is a curious grave marker. It reads: "Here lies a valiant fighter of General Mihajlovich's underground movement in Yugoslavia."

How does a Serbian guerrilla come to be buried in a humble cemetery in Chalk River? The story of the grave marker, laid by the Serbian National Shield Society of Canada, first came to light in 1960 when St. Andrews United Church renovated the historic cemetery. It had been in a state of neglect since its founding in 1870. The Yugoslav freedom fighter who lies under the marker went by the name of Marko Kuburovic. He was born in 1917 in Ljic, Serbia.

To trace how Kuburovic came to be so far from his homeland, one goes back to his former commander, the late General Draza Mihailovic and Yugoslavia's entry into the Second World War. After Germany defeated Yugoslavia in April, 1941, Mihailovic, then a colonel and a veteran of the 1912-13 Balkans War, refused to surrender and escaped to the mountains to regroup with surviving Yugoslav army units. With only seven officers and 24 NCOs, he organized the Military-Chetnik detachments, which eventually became known as the Yugoslav Army of the Homeland.

King Peter's government in exile promoted Mihailovic to the rank of general and appointed him minister of war. Instead of inspiring an uprising, Mihailovic decided to mount a resistence based on sabotage, using the mountains as a base of operations. Controversially, Mihailovic took measures to re-establish Greater Serbia which led to ethnic cleansing of Bosnians, Croats and other civilians who may have collaborated with the Nazis, Fascists and Communists. He issued orders which historians believe led to the deaths of 150,000 people.

The occupying German forces sought to eliminate Mihailovic and the leader of the Communist- Partisans, Tito. At one point, Hitler announced a policy where 100 Serbians would be killed for every one German soldier killed by Chetniks.

Mihailovic was receiving outside aid from the British Special Operations Executive, which eventually pulled back as the civil battles between Mihailovic and Tito escalated. Churchill was disturbed by reports from his own son, Randolph (who was co-located with Tito's headquarters), who indicated the Partisans were scoring more victories against German forces than the Chetniks. Churchill also put stock in reports that the Chetniks were collaborating with the Germans, as they hated the Communists much more than the Nazis. At the Tehran Conference in 1943, the Allies threw in their lot with Tito.

With the close of the war, the Partisans prevailed and Mihailovic went into hiding in Eastern Bosnia. In March, 1946, he was captured and put on trial for high treason and war crimes. Found guilty, he was executed months later. However, a U.S. commission of inquiry exonerated him. In 1948, President Harry Truman awarded him the Legion of Merit. This was in part because Mihailovic's forces protected 500 downed American and allied pilots and aided them in escaping occupied Yugoslavia.

It was out of this that 29-year-old Marko Kuburovic immigrated to Canada. Little is known about him, except he found employment as a displaced person at the hydro-electric power project on the Des Joachims dam. A freak accident would claim his life.

On the evening of May 23, 1948, Kuburovic had accompanied six others in a vehicle heading from the project on the Ontario side to Allumette Island. The car, driven by Simon Cosgrove, failed to make a turn onto an interprovincial bridge at Rolphton. The light roadster slammed into the side railing and rolled onto its side. One of the passengers, Kenneth Mack, was impaled by the railing and died instantly. That others were injured, but would survive. Except for Kuburovic.

Investigating the scene, police had no idea that Kuburovic was a passenger in the calamity. It wasn't until days later when he had not shown up for work or the place he was living that police made the connection. Police found out later he had been standing on the car's running board and was most likely thrown over the side of the bridge and into the Ottawa River.

Dragging operations began in the fast flowing waters underneath the bridge. There is no news account stating how and when his body was recovered. However, the former freedom fighter's final resting place is today a small plot in Chalk River, an ocean from his native Serbia.