ZAGREB, April 23 (Hina) - The Croatian Interior Ministry has admitted that there were omissions and failures in meeting a request from the UN war crimes tribunal for the protection of witness Milan Levar, but added that it cannot
launch disciplinary proceedings against responsible persons because the statute of limitations has run out.
ZAGREB, April 23 (Hina) - The Croatian Interior Ministry has admitted
that there were omissions and failures in meeting a request from the
UN war crimes tribunal for the protection of witness Milan Levar, but
added that it cannot launch disciplinary proceedings against
responsible persons because the statute of limitations has run out.#L#
The ministry has not given the names of the responsible police
officers nor the date when the statute of limitations expired.
The ministry on Friday issued a press release on the matter following
Thursday's deal between the Republic of Croatia and Levar's wife Vesna
and son Leon under which they will each be paid 220,000 kuna in
damages (approximately 30,000 euros), as well as 110,000 kuna (14,700
euros) as compensation for Leon's sustenance, and 2,500 kuna (330
euros) per month for as long as Leon attends school. The State agreed
to the deal with the Levar family after it was established that the
Croatian government in 1998 had taken over the obligation to protect
Levar and his family. The State says in the deal that it is
"responsible for the incident which occurred on 28 August 2000, when
an unidentified perpetrator planted an explosive device in the yard of
Milan Levar's house in Gospic, which killed Levar".
Milan Levar volunteered to give testimony to the Hague tribunal about
crimes committed against Serb civilians in the Gospic area in 1991.
Despite a comprehensive police investigation and repeated statements
by the previous government that the investigation was nearing
completion, the killer has not been identified to date.
The Interior Ministry said today that on 15 April 1998 (two years
before Levar's murder), the cabinet of the then Interior Minister Ivan
Penic received a letter from a former head of the Office for
Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, Snjezana Bagic, with a request from the Hague-based
tribunal for the protection of Levar.
It was established that the letter with the request was forwarded to
Penic's assistants and that they forwarded it with instructions to
subordinated officers, the press release said. However, it was
established that the document had never been sent to the Lika-Senj
County police department, which should have organised Levar's
protection.
(Hina) ms