HAGUE TRIBUNAL WITNESS MILAN LEVAR KILLED IN EXPLOSION IN GOSPIC - EXTENDED

GOSPIC, Aug 29 (Hina) - Milan Levar, a witness for the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was killed in an explosion which occurred at 3.45 pm in the back yard of his family house in the central Croatian town of Gospic on Monday. Levar, aged 46, is known for having voluntarily testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) about alleged crimes committed against Serb civilians in the Gospic area by the Croat side in late 1991. A statement issued by the Lika-Senj County police department last night read that Levar was killed on the spot in the explosion of an unidentified device in the back yard of his family house in Gospic. According to the statement, an intensive investigation in the case is being conducted by the Gospic County Court investigating judge Pavao Rukavina, with the assistance of the county crime police department. Participating in yesterday's on-the-spot investigation was also a forensic expert from the Rijeka Medical Faculty and a team of forensic experts from the Zagreb Interior Ministry's Forensics Centre. Levar's testimony in The Hague about alleged crimes against Serb civilians was among the testimonies which last spring prompted investigative activities by Hague experts in the Gospic area. Following the exhumation activities, which lasted several days, the investigators did not give any statements on the exact number of discovered remains, but they did not mention hundreds of executed civilians, which is what Levar had maintained. The head of the investigating team, Steve Chambers, then said the team had discovered at least one skeleton, while representatives of the Croatian authority said that a certain number of skeletons, in any case more than one, had been discovered. It was made known that the ICTY investigators had discovered about ten human skeletons and objects in Obradovic Varos, where in 1991 battles for the defence of Gospic had taken place. The remains were taken to Zagreb for pathological analysis. There was no information on whether the remains belonged to civilians or soldiers or whether they were later identified. No evidence on the alleged killing of Serb civilians in 1991 was discovered after a one-week investigation in Brusani, a village situated at the foot of Mt Velebit. In his testimony to the ICTY, Levar accused the Croatian authorities of having known about and having concealed the crimes. The most responsible person for the alleged crimes, according to Levar, was the head of the Gospic 1991 crisis headquarters, Tihomir Oreskovic. Oreskovic dismissed Levar's accusations, calling them fabrications. The investigation into Levar's death continues. (hina) rml