"Protection Corps") was an auxiliary volunteer militia established by Austro-Hungarian authorities in the newly annexed province of Bosnia and Herzegovina to track down Bosnian Serb opposition (members of the Chetniks and the Komiti), while its main victims were civilians.

[10] Oskar Potiorek, governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, closed many Serb societies and significantly contributed to the anti-Serb mood before the outbreak of World War I.

[11][12] The Government's plans to mobilize Croats and Muslims into Schutzkorps units in case of the war against Serbia were revealed in December 1912 in Banja Luka and caused protests among its Serb population.

[21] The decision to recruit primarily amongst Bosnian Muslims and Croats was part of deliberate divide-and-rule strategy employed by the Austro-Hungarians, the historian Aviel Roshwald writes.

[24] Imprisonment of around 5,500 (700 to 2,200 of them died in prison) and execution of 460 citizens of Serb ethnicity in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the beginning of the World War I heavily relied on Schutzkorps.

The Schutzkorps members' dressing in civilian garb and use of Serbo-Croatian to shout orders resulted in several friendly-fire incidents between them and the Austro-Hungarian Army.

[31] At the same time, the Serb casualties in Eastern Bosnia were partially the result of activities undertaken in retaliation to Serbian Chetniks who in fall 1914 had carried out attacks against Bosniaks in the area.

Eleven flying battalions were then organized in the province.На терор „шуцкора" жалили су се Срби из Гацка Земаљској влади, али њихове жалбе нијесу узимане у поступак.The Balkan Wars left Serbia as the region's strongest power.

Serbia's relationship with Austria-Hungary remained antagonistic, and the Habsburg administration in Bosnia-Hercegovina became anti-Serb.......the governor of Bosnia declared state of emergency, dissolved the parliament,.... and closed down many Serb associations....The anti-Serb policy and mood that emerged in the months leading up to the First World War were the result of the machinations of Gen. Oskar von Potiorek (1853-1933), Bosnia- Herzegovina's heavy-handed military governor.Although it had never took firm ground, the idea of volunteer units was revived in the crisis following the outbreak of the Balkan Wars On instructions from Vienna, General Potiorek established an auxiliary militia in Bosnia and Hercegovina— the so-called Schutzkorps, in which he mobilized the scum of town and country.

These were given freedom to deal with the Serbian...Frankovačke vođe iz Zagreba u stvaranju šuckora 1914. u Bosni i Hercegovini imale su glavnu ulogu.While committing their crimes, the Schutzkorps sang: an anti-Serbian song: "There is no three-fingered cross.

It was an ominous harbinger of things to come.Salihagić, a Bosnian Muslim who considered himself a Serb, protested the blanket accusations that all Bosniaks were responsible for the activities of Schutzkorps...