Five Strumica Students

The Five Strumica Students (Петте струмички студенти) refers to a group of five students on the age from 20-23, all born in Strumica that on August 13, 1951 were executed by authorities in Communist Yugoslavia. In the information report of the authorities it was stated that the group was planning to illegally cross the border to Greece, but their relatives claimed that they were killed because of ideas close to IMRO, an organization that fought for the independence of Macedonia. A large crowd flocked to the funeral of those killed, and their relatives built a large common gravestone, but after a few months the UDBA blew it up. The case received international acclaim, and soon after in New Jersey, USA, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the pro-Bulgarian Macedonian Patriotic Organization set up its own structures called in Струмишката петорка. At that time the Yugoslav authorities conducted a series of raids and executions to prevent the influence of the inherits of IMRO, this being one of them.