Gospić massacre
The killings were ordered by the Secretary of Lika Crisis Headquarters, Tihomir Orešković, and the commander of the 118th Infantry Brigade of the Croatian National Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Mirko Norac.In August 1990, an insurrection took place in Croatia centred in predominantly Serb-populated areas, including parts of Lika, near the city of Gospić, which also had a significant ethnic Serb population.[14] According to Ante Karić, President of the Lika Crisis Headquarters (krizni stožer), Dasović feared that the returning Serbs might harbour a fifth column, undermining defence of the town.[16] In addition, a paramilitary volunteer group, nicknamed "Autumn Rains", controlled by Tomislav Merčep, was deployed to Gospić in September; this unit was formally subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior.[13] The Secretary of the Lika Crisis Headquarters, Tihomir Orešković, and the commanding officer of the 118th Infantry Brigade Lieutenant Colonel Mirko Norac, called a meeting of their subordinates and ordered the arrest of Serb civilians, their subsequent detention in the Perušić barracks, and killings.[14] Twenty-four additional corpses had been burnt and disposed of near Duge Njive, a village east of Perušić, but retrieved by the 6th Brigade of the JNA on 25 December 1991, examined and reburied in Debelo Brdo, 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) away from Udbina.[13] In September 1997, the now defunct Croatian newspaper Feral Tribune published a detailed eyewitness account by Miroslav Bajramović, one of the Autumn Rains troops, who claimed to have been involved in carrying out the massacre.He also claimed they were occasionally ordered by Tomislav Merčep, who had been an ally of Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, to "terminate" prisoners, and that Vekić was fully aware of their task.[12] Ranko Marijan, the Justice Minister in a new government, criticised his predecessors and the police for their failure to pursue the case,[14] but the authorities failed to protect Levar, who was murdered by car bomb on 30 August 2000.[28] A formal inquest of the killings in Gospić was launched in late 2000 and warrants for the arrest of Orešković, Norac, Stjepan Grandić, Ivica Rožić and Milan Čanić were issued in February 2001.[24] The case was ultimately appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Croatia in 2004, which upheld the first-instance convictions of Orešković, Norac and Grandić, as well as the acquittals of Rožić and Čanić.[16] A BBC News analysis claimed the trials indicated a willingness on the part of the Croatian government to deal with war crimes committed by its nationals, following a long period of inactivity described by Rijeka County Court judge Ika Šarić as a "conspiracy of silence".