Applause for Bomber

"I hope these damned Gospicans are finally happy," Vesna Levar says through tears - "He should have been murdered a long time ago. He was trash and a traitor and thank God that someone finally decided to get rid of him," says a man sitting in front of one of military buildings in Kaniska St. while taking small sips of beer - "Mico [Milan Levar] was honest, correct, a Croat patriot, but he did not get it that he was simply a pawn, a toy in the hands of big players. His biggest mistake was that he did not have insurance, he did not prepare and hide documents," says a good friend of Milan Levar, a brigadier of the Croatian Army and adds: "This was done by someone who lives here, who knew Mico and his movement well, and there is a plenty of people in Gospic who could carry out something like that"

by Ivica DIKIC

Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, September 2, 2000

Only policemen and journalists stop in front of Milan Levar's house in 29 Kaniska St. Other passers by stay on the other side of the street. True, they slow down a bit and stare but no one even thinks about getting closer or asking a question. Those who pass by the house in cars, get all sorts of ideas. For example, some open windows, play music and shout "fuck Levar". Or in a more sophisticated version, "serves him well, the motherfucker."

That is Gospic, the town in which the war continues even today, full five years after its official ending, although that war was never officially declared; that town was under Serb siege for two months but the state of siege in the town has continued uninterrupted for almost ten years, thanks to individuals for whom war and crimes were the only way to find some sense in their own lives; this town has been drowning for years in blood of people who had grown up in it and lived in it until some new times came. In those times no one asked you what sort of a person you were. What mattered was your name and ethnicity and the individuals who are chiefly responsible for the deaths of innocent people are unquestioned national heroes in Gospic. Finally, Gospic openly, although without mentioning his name and surname, celebrates the murder of Milan Levar. The province is finally peaceful and can continue to wallow in its horror.

Rabbid Warriors

"I hope these damned Gospicans are finally happy," Vesna Levar says through tears while we are sitting in her small and dilapidated house. Her husband was killed in the yard. "I hope their heart is full now. I remember when two years ago Mico was seriously ill. I went to see him every day in the hospital and while I was passing through the town I couldn't get away from shouts 'Has the bastard died already?' I told him about that when he got out of the hospital, and he just waved that away and said 'My Vesna, if you only knew what they would do to you if I weren't here.' The whole town claimed that we were full of money, that the Hague was paying us, that Mico got $10,000 per interview, that he had betrayed his people for big money... On the other hand we had so little money that sometimes I did not have enough for bread. We did not have enough to buy food. This year, Mico did not want to go to the seaside, since we did not have enough money for all of us to go somewhere together for ten days. I would go with the kid over the day to Karlobag and come back at night, and Mico worked and said that the time would come when we would be able to go together to a vacation, like a true family. He told our son Leon that that Saturday he would come to Karlobag to see him swim. Leon had just learned to swim."

Mico Levar will never see his eleven-years-old son Leon swimming, and Leon will, probably, find out one day who prevented his father from coming to the beach that day to see him splashing in the water with his arms. Today, the names of Tihomir Oreskovic, Mirko Norac and the rest of the criminal gang that has been keeping the town in fear for almost ten years do not mean anything to him. The year when the mentioned group was the only authority in the town, Leon was aged two and had no idea why he was forced to spend days in a cellar. He knew even less what was going on in the town streets, where during those autumn days of 1991 a bloody bacchanalia of the rabid warriors who correctly understood Tudman's orders to cleanse the country from Serbs was going on.

Later, he did not understand why children were avoiding him at school, why grown ups stopped him in the street and told him to tell his father that he wouldn't live much longer and why everyone felt entitled to curse his Chetnik [derogatory term for Serbs] mother. The only thing he knows is that last Monday afternoon, his father was blown to bits by a bomb, and he won't ever forget that Monday.

Laughing at Tears

"Leon was with Mico in the yard when that happened. I was at work when the kid called me on the mobile phone and started screaming. I tried to ask him what had happened, but he could not talk, he was screaming all the time. Later he told me that he had tried to help his dad, that he had tried to turn him on his back but that he couldn't. He said that Mico was too heavy," says Vesna Levar still crying.

The town laughs at her tears. Not one of the neighbors has come to express condolences, and those who would like to do that are afraid that someone may see them entering the Levars' house.

"He should have been killed long time ago. He was trash and a traitor and thank God that someone decided to kill him," says a man sitting in front of one of military buildings in Kaniska St. while sipping from a beer bottle. He is completely cool, without any emotions and stress and it is obvious that it has occurred earlier to him that Levar should be killed. This reporter has seen in his life all sorts of fools, but still hasn't experienced to be told a day after someone's death that the victim deserved to be killed.

"Has Levar given you any reason to gloat over his death?"

"Of course he has! He spoke for ten years against my people, said that we were murderers and criminals that we butchered innocent Serbs... How come he never talked about how those Serbs, for whom he worked, shot at these people and killed the elderly, children and women...? How come he never talked about Serb massacres in Lovinac and Siroka Kula, how come he never criticized Serb criminals and murderers? He did not because he worked for them and was a traitor of the Croat people," says the guy. The more he talks, the more emotional he gets.

"Listen," he continues after taking care of his beer, "which paper do you work for?"

"Feral."

"Fuck that, they killed your best journalist then. Be honest with me, how much did you pay him for those articles?"

"Nothing at all."

"Let him be, can't you tell he is a liar," another character jumps in the conversation. He, of course, also thinks that the only bad thing in Levar's death is that it did not occur much earlier. "The stuff he was talking about, that was pure fabrication. Levar was sick, but he did not do what he did because he was sick. He did it for the money. He got rich from his lies."

"If he was rich, why was he still working as a car mechanic and fixed old cars?"

"Who knows how much money he has stashed abroad. He only pretended because of the people. Everything he said about Gospic is a lie, and that's that."

Cursed Town

"So you did not kill Serbs here?"

"We did kill Serbs, but in the war, and that is why Gospic was successfully defended. The biggest credits for the defense of the town go to Tihomir Oreskovic and Mirko Norac. They are heroes and deserve to have a monument erected by the town. Levar claimed that they were murderers. Ask people in the town what they think about Tiho and Norac, and what they think about Levar."

True. If one were to do an opinion poll about the popularity of the local candidates for the Hague and one local Hague witness in the local pubs, it seems that the fools are right.

"I do not care about that," says a good looking young woman while we drink the first morning coffee at the balcony of the café Nikola in the center of Gospic, "and I do not want to think about that at all. I have heard about that Levar, I roughly knew what he was doing and I knew that he was doing something bad. Everyone thought like that, the whole town. When the whole town, my parents, and everyone I know agrees about that, then I also agree with that."

"Aren't you sorry that a man was killed?"

"Not really. I mean, I did not know him, and I cannot be sad about someone I did not know."

"Fine, would you be sad if someone killed Norac?"

"Well, people here love and respect him, he defended the town. I would be sorry for him. But I do not really care about all that. I cannot live from that. I would like to find a job and live normally. If one can live a normal life in this dead town."

Now, one has to be rather weird to consider the life in Gospic normal. People sit in several local pubs in the center of the town. The town is swarming with people in uniform. Very few have a job and only those employed by the state receive salaries. The atmosphere of a cursed town is underlined by a certain silent conspiracy which has been in force here for years. Everybody somehow feels guilty. Those who stole a Serb TV set or a refrigerator believe that they will also end up in the Hague if only they dare speak about the crimes that happened here.

One of those who know a lot about those crimes is the man who as a precondition for talking to journalists demanded to remain anonymous. By the way, he is an officer of the Croatian army and a friend of Milan Levar. He knows a lot but says little.

Two Rags

"Levar was 75 percent a genius, and the remaining 25 percent was some sort of madness. I do not mean anything bad by that. That is the way he was. Mico was honest, correct, a Croat patriot, but he did not realize that he was only a pawn, a toy in the hands of big players. His family will now be taken care of and provided security, and that will perhaps be done exactly by those who killed him."

"Who are they?"

"Professionals, no doubt. Mico's biggest mistake was that he did not prepare insurance, that he did not stash documents away."

"Are you sure he did not do that?"

"I am pretty sure. Had he done that, I would have known for sure. Had he done that, he would have probably been alive now."

The officer believes that it is unlikely that the murderers will be found. According to him, immediately after Levar's murder, two intelligence teams arrived to Gospic. One of them has the task to find murderers and the other to hide evidence. Besides, he believes that this case is investigated mostly by amateurs, and he views Gospic investigative magistrate Pavao Rukavina as the chief amateur.

"If the authorities were serious about investigating this case and finding the criminals, they would have certainly sent here their best investigators and policemen. This way, everything indicates that the culprits will never be found," he says.

"I do not trust the Gospic police, because they did nothing to protect Mico. They protected us for a few days in April when the demonstrations and exhumations in Obradovic Varos took place and then they abolished that protection," says Vesna Levar. "Recently Mico was thinking about leaving Croatia, since he realized that everyone was afraid and no one wanted to help him. True, lately we had visits from some people against whom Mico spoke in public. They supported him and told him that he was right, that he was doing the right thing. But it could be that they simply wanted to put him at ease before trying to kill him. This was done by someone who lives here and who knew Mico and his daily movements well. In Gospic you can find many individuals who would be capable of doing something like that."

Vesna Levar does not expect that anyone suffer with her. She only expects that murderers be found and that it be proven that her husband was telling the truth all these years.

"I want my Leon to be able to one day proudly walk through this cursed town, knowing that his father was murdered because he fought for justice and to bring criminals to justice," she says.

Translated on September 20, 2000