Vesna Levar
Vesna Levar was born in 1968 in Belišće, in Osijek-Baranja County. During the Second World War her mother was deported to a camp in Germany. In 1971 she moved with her parents from Belišće to Lički Osik. She finished her high school studies and became a meteorology technician in Belgrade. After graduating, she was employed by the Meteorological and Hydrological Service in Gospić. Her husband, Milan Levar, joined the defence of Gospić at the very beginning of the war. She spent the entire course of the war – apart from twenty days as a refugee – with her husband and a small child in Gospić. Her husband left the army in June 1992. The first time he spoke publicly about war events in Gospić was in autumn of 1992. Because of his public action and his cooperation with the ICTY, both Milan Levar and his family started receiving threats. On August 28, 2000 Milan Levar was killed in an explosion of a bomb planted in the back yard of his house in Gospić. The perpetrators have never been found. Milan Levar’s killing remains one of the emblematic cases of political killings in Croatia following independence. Vesna Levar lives with her son Leon in Gospić.