Milan Levar (c. 1954 – 28 August 2000) was a Croatian

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

, a former officer in the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( or HKoV) is the land force branch of the Croatian Armed Forces. It is numerically the largest of the three branches of the Croatian Armed Forces. The HKoV is the main force for the defense of the country against external threa ...

. The

Gospić Gospić () is a town in Lika, Croatia. It is the seat of the Lika-Senj County. Geography Gospić is located in the mountainous and sparsely populated region of Lika. It is the administrative center of Lika-Senj County. Gospić is located n ...

-born Levar was murdered by a bomb placed under his car outside his house in Gospić 28 August 2000, because he had publicly campaigned for justice for victims of

crimes In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

committed during the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence) and (rarely) "War in Krajina" ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Рат у Крајини, Rat u Krajini) are used. was an armed conflict fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 between Croats, Croat forces loyal to the Governmen ...

. After volunteering for the Croatian Army in 1991, according to reports, in 1992 he was ordered to round-up Croatian Serbs for execution which he refused. He had helped to defend the town in 1991 when local Serbs rebelled against Croatia's declaration of independence. In 1991 he witnessed Serbian civilians taken by truck to locations outside of Gospić where they were executed by military police squads and buried in hidden mass graves. Thereafter, he witnessed the plunder of their homes. Levar reported the crimes at the time they occurred but nothing was done. He was so shocked by his own side's actions that he left the military and decided to give evidence to the war-crimes tribunal in

the Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. After the war, he was contacted by the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...

in the Hague and interrogated as a potential witness in 1997 and 1998 in connection with war crimes. He helped collecting evidence and finding other witnesses who were also interviewed by the Tribunal. Levar was murdered before giving his testimony in court. Investigation into Levar's death has been so far unsuccessful. The Croatian authorities have stopped informing his widow of the progress of the investigation. She herself has received death threats from unknown individuals on several occasions. One of the concerns voiced by the witnesses as reasons for their unwillingness to give testimony about things they allegedly saw during the war is the prevailing impunity of the high profile military and political officials who were in position of power during the war. Despite the existence of publicly available information, including evidence from public court proceedings in Croatia, allegations against many of the officials have not been investigated.Amnesty International 10 February 2011. "Croatia: protect war crimes witnesses."
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levar, Milan 1950s births Date of birth missing 2000 deaths Military personnel of the Croatian War of Independence Croatian whistleblowers History of Gospić Deaths by car bomb Assassinated Croatian military personnel People assassinated in the 20th century

See also

References