Croatia-Wartime Atrocities
Ex-soldiers claim Croatian officials covered up wartime atrocities
By SNJEZANA VUKIC
Associated Press Writer
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) _ Former Croatian intelligence officers
accused top government officials Tuesday of covering up the 1991
slaughter of Serbs and Croats in central Croatia.
The former soldiers also complained that the international war
crimes tribunal was not acting on evidence they provided and was
``slow or unwilling'' to prosecute the offenders.
``We gave them statements, tapes, footage as evidence and we
expected some indictments, but nothing has happened,'' former
officer Mirko Levar told reporters Tuesday.
Levar and his former colleague Zdenko Ropac said they testified
before tribunal investigators in The Hague, Netherlands, in early
December. They also said they met tribunal investigators last
summer in Croatia to tour some areas where bodies reportedly were
buried.
Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier could not be reached for
comment Tuesday.
According to international officials, about 120 people in the
Gospic area, about 90 miles southwest of Zagreb, disappeared and
were presumed killed in 1991, in the early days of the Serbo-Croat
war. Most of those who vanished were Serbs, but some Croats also
disappeared.
Levar, Ropac and Zdenko Bando, former head of the local military
police, said evidence they gathered showed that 127 Serbs and an
unspecified number of Croats were killed between late 1991 and
January 1992.
``But the executions continued, and the figure now is much
higher,'' Levar said, declining to specify.
People were ``either shot at, or killed by knife, hammer or
electricity,'' he said, adding that the bodies were buried at
scattered locations throughout the area.
The three accused the former military commanders in the area,
Gen. Maj. Mirko Norac, now commander in southern Croatia, and Col.
Tihomir Oreskovic, currently a local government official, of
leading the murderous campaign. Both denied the accusations.
The former soldiers also said top government officials _
including Defense Minister Gojko Susak and President Franjo Tudjman
_ must have known about the crimes.
The Hague tribunal has not charged any Croat for the alleged
1991 killings of Serbs.
AP-ES-01-27-98 2137EST