A Murder that Shook Croatia
AIM Zagreb, September 3, 2000
"The murder of Milan Levar is a reply to the silence with which institutions of the Croatian state reacted to political extremism" stated Stjepan Mesic, President of Croatia, in connection with the liquidation of the undestined Hague witness from Gospic. Milan Levar, who during the war served as a volunteer and was a prominent defender of Gospic, and later one of very few persons willing to testify about the crimes committed in 1991 in that town against Serbian civilians, was killed last week by a planted bomb. It was common knowledge that he had been threatened by those whom he had openly denounced to the Hague Tribunal and about whom he directly spoke in the Croatian media.
Levar's liquidation is perhaps the most dramatic moment in the seven-month rule of the new authorities. At the crucial moment only President Mesic reacted properly and behaved responsibly like a true statesman. He said that Levar had been killed by those who feared his testimony, but also criticised state structures.
"I have to reproach Croatian state institutions for not reacting on time when anti-fascist monuments were urinated on and at the time of the unveiling of a monument to the Ustasha leader Jure Francetic, etc. Levar's murder is a reaction to the silence of certain institutions", said Mesic adding that despite warnings, the competent authorities failed to protect the killed Hague witness.
He was very specific in his accusations and named Chief of the Gospic police, Dubravko Novak, and mentioned his statement that no one knew anything about threats to Levar. Mesic thought that there had been many warnings and signs that "terror was getting close to Levar" so that a policeman who claimed that he knew nothing about his responsibility, in his opinion, "is unworthy of his uniform".
However, the institutions were not impressed by this. Numerous investigating teams were sent to Gospic, but everyone washed his hands of the responsibility for the crime. Police Minister, Sime Lucin, explicitly rejected any responsibility for Levar's death. He refused to dismiss the chief of local police. His arguments were that the 1998 request of the Hague Tribunal to official Zagreb demanding protection for Levar, got stuck in the Ministry of Police and never reached Gospic. In other words, Lucin's predecessor, HDZ Minister of Police, was responsible.
However, there are at least three reasons for which the present Minister should also feel responsible. In normal states there exists a category of absolute liability so that in case of major scandals and accidents in, for example, health or transportation fields, the competent ministers step down even when they are not directly responsible. Secondly, the Croatian public was informed about threats to Levar's life, so that if the police knew nothing about them - someone in that service was not doing his job. Thirdly, the Minister appointed for a Chief of Gospic Police a man who already under Tudjman's authorities showed that he had no business in law enforcement forces. For example, last year, as Chief of Zagreb Police Department he calmly watched the violence right-wing activist used against Zagreb anti-fascist, who had traditionally gathered at the renamed Square of the Victims of Fascism. Moreover, on that occasion the police made it clear that it was in cahoots with the extremists. When blood was spilled, chief of Zagreb Police at that time, and now chief of Gospic Police, said that it was a fight between, as he called them, ideologically opposed groups. Such a man could not have been expected to guard a Hague witness, but the new authorities were expected to guard themselves against such people. The authorities had sent a policeman, who last year could not even protect Mesic from receiving a blow on his back, to keep peace and order in volatile and tension-torn Gospic.
Equally absurd is that Levar's death is being investigated by those same people who have prevented the investigation of war crimes in Gospic. The unfortunate Hague witness named all of them who covered up crimes, and now they are expected to find his murderers. Also, some generals, who in Levar's opinion were most to blame for the suffering of the Serbs, are still in high positions. The new authorities have not made a radical turnabout in relation to the forces from the past, neither on the personnel nor on the political level, and this has now backfired. Moreover, as of late, a part of the today's authorities have returned to Tudjman's topics and rhetoric. From the hard-core nucleus of the ruling twosome, from SDP and HSLS top ranks, attempts were being made at inciting anti-Hague feelings and carrying out nation-wide mobilisation against the Tribunal by claiming that it has again become very hard to be a Croat. Some analysts directly link Levar's murder with the creation of such an atmosphere.
After Levar's murder it became evident that the current authorities were having trouble with defining their position towards extremism. Although European West provides daily examples how democracies all over the world, from the highest places, resolutely oppose political reactionaries, which in Croatia are either interpreted as politically marginal, allegedly so as not to attach them too much importance, or treated with kid gloves in order not to make them even angrier.
After the explosion which killed Levar, shocked Gospic and - as it will turn out - the entire Croatia, no comment came from the top echelons. The Government issued a mumbo-jumbo statement some thirty hours after the murder took place, but neither the Prime Minister nor his spokeswoman addressed the public. None of the parties of the ruling axis defined its position towards the murder.
This was, among other things, the expression of their calculating character. The current authorities are aware of the fact that Tudjman's nationalistic concept has not yet been totally defeated. HDZ lost the elections because of its social policy, crime and plundering of the ruling elite, as well as for creating a Latin-American socially-torn model of society. Recently, public opinion poll showed that a large part of the public had reservations towards the Hague Tribunal and prosecution of Croatian generals, as they are metaphorically called here. Levar's pathetic funeral was a telling proof of that mood. Apart from the representative of the authorities, just a few friends attended the funeral. Majority of Gospic denizens gloat over and ridicule this murder in the most vulgar way.
For the time being, Mesic was the only one who had the guts to call things by their true name and to resist such behaviour. Incidentally, at one time, as a member of the opposition, he had testified in the Hague after which he was proclaimed national traitor in Croatia. But, perhaps the new Croatian authorities have reached a turning point: they did no tame extremism with their lenient behaviour, but rather made it more offensive. Several actions carried out recently, from the registration of the para-Helsinki Board to Levar's murder, point that that side has consolidated and become more radical.
A day after the explosion in Gospic, an information from Pantovcak leaked that Mesic was being threatened with a fate similar to Levar's. An Ustasha, allegedly dissolved organisation - the Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood - announced that it was planning to kill the President with a bomb. After that Prime Minister Racan stated that he and other state officials had received similar assassination threats and announced that Croatia could expect a rising wave of political terrorism. Perhaps the ruling team has finally realised that Levar's assassins were not planning only to stop the disagreeable and stubborn Hague witness, but that their crime had a much broader target - to destabilise the current authorities.
It seems that the public was again quicker. Some surveys show for the first time that the majority in Croatia has critically departed from the hitherto ruling nationalistic ideas and practice. A polls conducted by a Zagreb daily showed that every fourth pollee thought that the Croatian authorities have reacted too mildly to Levar's murder, almost 64 percent of them demanded more resolute action against nationalistic outbursts and extremism, while over 70 percent of respondents thought that Croatia should cooperate with the Hague Tribunal. Murder of the Hague witness may prove a sobering experience for Croatia.
Jelena Lovric