On February 11, around 100,000 people staged a protest in the Croatian town of Split. The huge crowd demonstrated against an arrest warrant issued for Mirko Norac, a former Croat general accused of war crimes against Serbs. Many Croats regard Norac, as a hero during the 1991 defense of Gospic (which Serbia attacked). The war crimes accusation says Norac murdered 40 Serb civilians near Gospic in October 1991. According to wire reports, much of the crowd consisted of veterans groups and members of right-wing political parties. One report said the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), helped organize the protests. Which leads to the suspicion that the right-wing HDZ is using the war crimes accusation to attempt to topple the moderate-liberal government currently in power in Zagreb.