Legionnaire City

Besides having lost at least four fifths of its original population (from 18,000 to 4,000) and turning into a bastion of robbery and violence where uniformed young men beat and burn and terrorize and blackmail the remaining population, Gospic still has its title of a town people run from rather than stay in. Now it has become unsafe even for soldiers. Some 40 members of the once notorious Croatian National Guard have been killed in various ways and strange circumstances during the past few years. The police have not done much except say they were all accidents. The population is too terrified to say anything else.

"The violence by the young men is done under the direct orders of ranking civilian and military officials," Pajo Simic Cunjar, a councilor in the Lika Senj district, said.

"The men who destroyed Gospic," he added, "are not locals, they are people from Zagreb with roots in Lika. Primarily Prime Minister Nikica Valentic and Hrvoje Sarinic who decided, along with local district chief Ante Frkovic and the civilian and military authorities, to destroy all life in Gospic and its economy so that everyone would depend on them."

Among other things, Gospic residents can't rebuild their town or survive since there's no work. Any deal that has been made was made by Zagreb companies owned by the Lika men from Zagreb who have their people in the town.

Just part of the total of 3,500 legionnaires (Croatian émigrés) in Croatia are stationed in Zagreb. "those are the same men that Tudjman told me he had to take in, and he did to the misfortune of this state. They are the same men who wanted to kill him on December 17, 1991 in Gospic when a miracle saved him," Simic said and explained: "Snipers were deployed around the stage he was speaking from, everywhere. No one knew who was going to shoot who. And now, Tudjman is protecting criminals; or he's so impotent that he's given up Gospic to the people who want to see him go."

Fear of soldiers, or more precisely out of control bullies, is permanently present in Gospic. Most of the 15,000 troops stationed in the town are not locals, including commanders. That creates additional tension. Those bullies, mostly young men, like to shoot at portraits of the president as a show of force.