At the beginning of 1992 Slovenian television broadcast a report by TV Beograd regarding 29 corpses found near Perusic. The corpses were doused with gasoline and half burned, and identified among them were some residents of Gospic. Since them to the present day, hundreds of news cards have been filled regarding the dark side of the Croatian defense of Gospic. Unlike many other controversial episodes from recent Croatian history, this was one regarding which numerous witnesses were willing to talk under their full first and last names.
At the beginning of 1998 participants of the defense of Gospic revealed their identities and indicated that they had testified before investigators of the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague: Milan Levar, Zdenko Ropac and Zdenko Bando. They talked about corpses scattered by the roadside which decomposed for months in open view, about mass executions during the night of people pulled from shelters, about rapes of displaced females from Bosnia.
Stjepan Krizmanic, a volunteer in the Homeland War, testified in the weekly "Feral Tribune" regarding the existence of concentration camps in the former agricultural facility of the Yugoslav National Army in Zablace; he talked about torture of prisoners, about screams which pierced the night...
After parting ways with the Croatian Democratic Alliance (HDZ), Josip Manolic, who was the head of the Department for the Protection of the Constitutional Order during the times that the war crimes in Gospic occurred, also spoke up about these horrible events.
In the Attorney General's office there remain "two criminal petitions of a private person" dating as far back as 1991.
Everything that has been written during these years in the independent media and everything that has been said about the Gospic case, however, was not enough for the appropriate state attorney to request an investigation. All state institutions, including the state media, especially Croatian television (HTV) whose journalists also covered the "Gospic front", remained silent regarding the war crimes in Gospic, that is, regarding the fact that there were people who were talking about war crimes. It was clear that the political leadership had decided that the "Gospic case" did not exist.
The Hague investigators who recently began to carry out the first exhumations in Lika and initiated the first search for "missing persons" from 1991 have uncovered one of the greatest sins of the former Croatian regime: for nine years not one state institution addressed the claims regarding corpses buried in shallow graves, regarding elderly people who disappeared...
The chief suspect, Tihomir Oreskovic, following Gospic was not included in further military campaigns except, briefly, during the period of Operation Storm. He continued to live quietly in Zagreb, in an apartment given to him by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Croatia (MORH), from the respectable pension of a Croatian colonel.
IN GOSPIC:
Head of Crisis Headquarters Ante KARIC
Secretary Crisis Headquarters Tihomir ORESKOVIC
Commander of the 118th Brigade of the Croatian Army (HV) Mirko NORAC
Prime minister Franjo GREGURIC
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) Ivan VEKIC
Assistant (MUP) Smiljan RELJIC
Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Croatia (MORH) Gojko SUSAK
Military Police (MORH) Mate LAUSIC
Did the Croatian political leadership in fall of 1991 have reliable information regarding events in Gospic? How high, in fact, does the spiral of political responsibility go with regard to the bloody orgies in Gospic which lasted for several weeks?
This was the period of the rule of the Government of National Unity headed by prime minister Franjo Greguric, while the deputy premier for foreign affairs and emigrants was SDP member Dr. Zdravko Tomac.
One of the members of the government was Drazen Budisa.
The minister of internal affairs was Ivan Vekic, and the head of the Criminal Police Force was Smiljan Reljic.
The former prime minister, Josip Manolic, was then head of the Department for the Protection of the Constitutional Order; he was considered to be the second-in-command of the state, the head of all the intelligence services.
The minister of defense was Gojko Susak.
While still premier, Josip Manolic organized a network of Crisis Headquarters. In Gospic, the head of the Crisis Headquarters was Ante Karic, and his secretary was Tihomir Oreskovic. Mirko Norac was the commander of the army brigade in Gospic.
Greguric today emphasizes that the Government at that time, unfortunately, had very little information regarding what was happening in the regions where military operations were being conducted. "At that time MUP and MORH were already functioning well, and the president also convened a Military Council which discussed military campaigns and, consequently, probably the situation in Gospic. Although I was premier, I was never invited to the meetings of the Military Council. I am personally opposed to every form of crime and believe that the law must be respected regardless of who breaks it. Unfortunately, I had no information regarding the situation in Gospic," Greguric stated when questioned by "Globus".
The former deputy premier, Dr. Zdravko Tomac, testified, however, that prime minister Greguric was aware that something suspicious was going on in Gospic but claimed, however, that the Government at that time could do very little because in many regions "total anarchy" reigned.
Tomac warns that during this period they received reports of "disappearances" from other regions. "Regardless of the fact that we belong to different parties, I can say that Greguric as premier always reacted to those reports. He would even personally go out to the front and attempt to resolve problems. I remember one time he told me where he was going and added: 'Just so you know where I was going, in case I don't come back...' It was a difficult time."
When we asked why he did not alert the public when it became clear that the case was not being resolved, we did not get an answer: "It was a time of to be or not to be... I repeat, I did everything that I could. The fact that Budisa and I are today being called to account for having been members of the former Government is purely political."
And Tihomir Oreskovic? He was one of the many fascinating emigrants who at the beginning of the 1990's suddenly appeared in Croatia. It was unofficially stated that he first approached Perica Juric, during the time when he performed the duties of the head of SZUP and offered him his services. When Juric saw that Oreskovic had spend ten years abroad, and that it could not be determined what exactly he had been doing during those ten years, he refused the offer.
Oreskovic himself emphasized that in 1979 he was sentenced "for subversive propaganda within the Yugoslav National Army (JNA)", that he spent a year and four months in the military prison in Belgrade and that afterwards he asked for, and got, political asylum in the United States where he worked primarily as a reporter. He returned to Croatia as a member of the Croatian state-founding movement. He was recommended to the position of secretary by his brother, Ivica Oreskovic, who was already working in the intelligence team of Josip Perkovic, the head chief of SIS, the military intelligence service.
Ante Karic, the head of the Crisis Headquarters, wrote later in his letter to Josip Manolic that Perica Juric had said of Oreskovic that "he worked for UDBA".
One of the then highly-laced politicians announced recently that Oreskovic was nevertheless sent to Gospic "simply because no one else wanted to go there". The fact is that Tihomir Oreskovic, too, became the secretary of the Crisis Headquarters in Gospic with the approval of the Republic Crisis Headquarters, that is, Josip Manolic.
Mirko Norac arrived in an Antiterrorist Unit which was deployed from a center in Lucko. Brusque, unpredictable. When general Petar Stipetic came to replace him in January 1992, he refused to stand because, he said, he "can report only to Maks Luburic, and not to him," testified Ante Karic.
The former head of the Crisis Headquarters Karic claims that during the most controversial period, in mid-October 1991, he had not forgotten Gospic. "On October 23 I returned to Gospic and, like every other day that I was there, I called the first morning meeting. Then the telephone rang and it was a call from the office of premier Greguric who asked me why I had not responded to the fax from October 21... In that fax I was asked to investigate reports from relatives regarding the disappearance of five Serb civilians. An investigation began. Later there was talk about more people."
Ante Karic reveals that the entire report on war crimes in Gospic, for which he holds Tihomir Oreskovic and Mirko Norac responsible, was composed in October of 1991 and that it was placed in a secure place "abroad".
It is well-known that in Gospic, after it was discovered that he had composed a report, his life hung by a thread... "Later I was mainly threatened verbally, especially by phone. The things that my wife had to listen to..."
On the day when it was published in the daily papers that the Government had allowed that Hague investigators inspect the sites in Lika, Karic was called for a meeting with Tihomir Oreskovic. Karic claims that he only repeated that in this report he had only written "indisputable facts".
Should the Croatian Government agree to investigation by the Hague tribunal on exhumation of mass graves?
Yes - 55.6%
No - 17.0%
Don't know - 27.4%
Do you agree that the Croatia should extradite those persons whom the Hague tribunal suspects of war crimes?
Completely disagree - 11.3%
Generally disagree - 32.9%
Generally agree - 25.4%
Don't know - 22.3%
What do you think about the relation of the former regime with respect to the Hague tribunal?
Didn't want to cooperate because it was involved in war crimes - 33.5%
If it had punished perpetrators of war crimes, there would be no problem with the Hague tribunal - 24.0%
It resisted the unjust demands and blackmail of the Hague tribunal for a long time - 8.6%
It advised everyone of the need to differentiate between the homeland war and aggression - 7.2%
Delay in entering Europe due to failure to cooperate - 6.9%
Other - 1.4%
No response - 18.4%
This was in fact the first great defeat of the "second-in-command in the state" Manolic, and a huge victory of the new, most important associate of president Tudjman, Gojko Susak.
For Franjo Tudjman, the president of the state, this episode was resolved. Shockingly insensitive to the violations of human rights, state president Dr. Franjo Tudjman had not, after all, reacted in the case of Pakrac Field (Pakracka Poljana), either. In a manner unseeming for a statesman, he considered the liquidation of Serb civilians something unimportant in comparison with the main goal.
Ante Karic: On October 17, 1991, Gospic was visited by president Tudjman and he requested a detailed report of the situation in that area. Several days later I prepared a detailed report, twelve cards of text, which I sent to president Tudjman and Josip Manolic. Everything is explained: how the liquidations were carried out and who carried out the war crimes. Tihomir Oreskovic was the organizer, and Mirko Norac the executor. Mercep's group was also active here. I requested that both Norac and Mercep be removed from duty as soon as possible.
Josip Manolic: The report regarding war crimes in Gospic was sent to president Tudjman and to me. The president at first obviously didn't know what to do with it, he "sat" on the report for 14-15 days, and then he called Reljic, then head of the Criminal Police Force, and ordered an investigation, and that he go after Oreskovic if necessary. It was clear that a strong group had been created down in Gospic and that the arrest would have to take place elsewhere. They waited for Oreskovic to come to Zagreb. Then he was arrested and questioned. Soon Gojko Susak intervened, saying that "this was no way to treat our children" and that Oreskovic was a soldier and could only be detained by the Military Police. When the Military Police took over, Oreskovic was released the same day.
Oreskovic, too, in an interview in 1993 stated that "I was only held for an informational conversation". "Illegally, too, I might add, because the police had not right to detain me as I am a member of the Croatian Army," claimed Oreskovic.
Since Josip Manolic had stated that Gojko Susak insisted that the Military Police was responsible for Oreskovic, we also asked the former head of the Military Police, Mate Lausic, whether it took over Tihomir Oreskovic from the civil police force in 1991 or whether it processed him in any manner. The response was negative. If true, this would mean that Oreskovic was released immediately after questioning by the Criminal Police Force. Karic, too, claims that Oreskovic was released as a result of Susak's intervention. Besides Susak, allegedly, Zdravka Busic, too, intervened for his release with president Tudjman.
Tihomir Oreskovic in December 1991 was reassigned to Zagreb and worked in SIS. During the period of Operation Storm he allegedly worked in some campaigns on the Lika front but he did not distinguish himself in any manner. As a volunteer he worked as the head of the Perusic municipal district.
Smiljan Reljic has never explained whether he conducted an investigation, and all the other politicians who knew remained silent. Josip Manolic has spoken up about the Gospic case only years later, not even during the first phase following his withdrawal from the HDZ.
Through a comparison of various reports it can be estimated that in the fall of 1991 in the Gospic region approximately 100 to 150 people were liquidated.
In the archive of the HHO for the period of 1991 in Gospic, on the basis of "information from the field which is not equivalent to a subsequent investigation", there is evidence regarding 63 persons who were killed or who disappeared. However, as the director of HHO, Bojan Munjin, emphasizes: "It is possible that the number is greater."
One of the Hague witnesses, Milan Levar, announced recently that the HHO was never agile in investigating the "Gospic case" in 1991 because Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, the leader of HHO for many years, was the best man of Tihomir Oreskovic. The fact is, however, that toward the end of 1991, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak was among the first to alert the public that something suspicious was going on in Gospic in his column in "Slobodna Dalmacija".
As in the case of Pakracka Poljana, the president of the state Dr. Franjo Tudjman knew the details of the war crimes against Serb civilians. Shocking is the coldness with which he assessed these "secondary mistakes" and the manner in which he permitted the advancement of persons accused on the most serious crimes. Even more shocking is the number of highly placed state officials and politicians who knew and remained silent or, as they claim, could not do anything. Why did none of those who knew but "could not do anything" submit their resignations?