ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - Croatian Army General Mirko Norac on Wednesday issued a statement in which he denied claims that he was familiar with alleged killings of Serbs in the Gospic area, central Croatia, in 1991. I resolutely claim
that there were no killings in Gospic, especially not organised ones, or at least none that I know of, Norac said in the statement released to the press. Several media this week ran claims by Milan Levar to the effect that Norac had organised killings and known for executions in the Gospic area. Levar testified on the subject before The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) a few years ago. In his statement, Norac says that people from all over Croatia, and the world, were in Gospic in 1991, and that everyone who wanted to fight was welcome. "In those and such circumstances it is not excluded that there were individual instan
ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - Croatian Army General Mirko Norac on
Wednesday issued a statement in which he denied claims that he was
familiar with alleged killings of Serbs in the Gospic area, central
Croatia, in 1991.
I resolutely claim that there were no killings in Gospic,
especially not organised ones, or at least none that I know of,
Norac said in the statement released to the press.
Several media this week ran claims by Milan Levar to the effect that
Norac had organised killings and known for executions in the Gospic
area. Levar testified on the subject before The Hague-based
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) a
few years ago.
In his statement, Norac says that people from all over Croatia, and
the world, were in Gospic in 1991, and that everyone who wanted to
fight was welcome. "In those and such circumstances it is not
excluded that there were individual instances of murder out of
revenge or to loot, but not organised ones," Norac says.
He points out that Levar's claims are long-standing harsh
fabrications aimed at discrediting Norac as a man and soldier, and
not only Norac, but also those who defended Gospic and with their
courage and superhuman efforts prevented the division of Croatia.
Such claims also want to present Gospic as a lair of evil, darkness,
and crime, instead of as an heroic, proud and honourable town, Norac
maintains.
He points out that Levar had never been a reconnaissance-sabotage
leader, or any significant factor in the defence of Gospic.
Media articles, which came in the wake of ICTY investigators'
arrival in the Gospic area, claimed that at the beginning of the
Homeland War Levar commanded a reconnaissance-sabotage platoon and
a tapping centre in Gospic.
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