War Crimes Suspect Arrested in Canaries

Croatian general Ante Gotovina, a fugitive accused of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has been arrested at a luxury hotel in the Canary Islands. The arrest is seen as a boost for Zagreb's efforts to join the EU.

Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte announced the news of Gotovina's capture during a visit to Belgrade. "I have very good news, since Ante Gotovina was arrested last night in Spain," she said.



The news was welcomed worldwide, with NATO foreign ministers gathered in Brussels, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, breaking into spontaneous applause as they were told. EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn called the arrest "very good news", while British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose nation holds the bloc's rotating presidency, congratulated Spanish and Croatian authorities.




Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: A poster with a portrait of a top war crimes suspect, GotovinaGotovina, who was using a fake Croatian passport in the name of Kirstian Horouat, was flown to the Spanish capital, Madrid, in a military aircraft, where he appeared before a judge at the city's national court for a brief hearing. He was remanded in custody to the Soto del Real prison north of Madrid, pending his transferal to The Hague in the Netherlands, which could be as early as Friday.



Four years on the run



Gotovina, once a soldier in the French Foreign Legion, had been on the run since mid-2001 when The Hague announced his indictment for war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croatian conflict. He is accused of involvement in the deaths of about 150 Serb civilians during a Croatian offensive in 1995, and is one of the war crimes tribunal's three most-wanted fugitives. Radovan Karadzic, the political leader of the Serbs during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, and his military chief, Ratko Mladic are still at large.



Croatian Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, said the arrest endorsed the EU's decision to start accession talks in October following a seven month delay on the grounds that Brussels was dissatisfied with the level of Zagreb's cooperation in tracking down the ex-general.




Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader"It is the final confirmation of the credibility of Croatia and its state institutions," Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said. "Those who believed us when we were saying that Gotovina was not in Croatia today received the final and complete confirmation."



Conflict with Catholic church



In September, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia expressed frustration over Croatia's apparent inability to find and arrest the 50-year-old former general. Del Ponte told a British newspaper she suspected Gotovina, considered a war hero by many of his compatriots, was hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia and that the Vatican could probably pinpoint his location easily.



"I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican totally refuses to co-operate with us," she told The Daily Telegraph. Croatia's Catholic Church and the Vatican strenuously rejected the accusations.
Speaking on Bosnian Serb television after the arrest on Thursday, the chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Ivo Miro Jovic said the arrest was an embarrassment for the chief war crimes prosecutor. "Will Del Ponte be ashamed at all after her statements, which inflicted great damage on the Roman Catholic Church, that Gotovina was hiding in monasteries here and in Croatia," he said.
But observers say the arrest strengthens Del Ponte's position, which was viewed as weakened after she approved Croatia's future EU membership before Gotovina had been arrested. It was seen as an indication of hope for Belgrade's EU bid even with Karadzic and Mladic on the loose.

Six fugitives on the loose

Del Ponte said she now expected Karadzic and Mladic and the other fugitives to be arrested.. Of the 161 people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), six remain at large. But Rasim Ljajic, Serbia-Montenegro's minister for human and minority rights, insists that Belgrade is in the dark as to the two main suspects' whereabouts.

"I do not expect Ratko Mladic or any other indictees still at large to go to The Hague by December 15," he said in reference to Del Ponte's December 14 deadline -- the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton peace accords that ended Bosnia's war -- for the pair's arrests.
The war crimes court has charged Karadzic and Mladic with genocide and crimes against humanity, notably in relation to the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim males in the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

If Del Ponte decrees Belgrade is being obstructive, talks on eventual EU membership could be blocked.

AFP/DW staff (tkw)
Croatian war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina, awaiting transfer from Spain to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, hasd been traveling on a false passport with entry and exit stamps from around the world, Spanish officials said Friday. Gotovina was arrested Wednesday night at a hotel in Tenerife in the Canary Islands after Spanish police were tipped off by Interpol, and will be surrendered to the court as soon as a flight can be arranged, Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told a news conference. He called the transfer "a question of logistics, of infrastructure. As soon as it is possible, he will be placed at the physical disposal of the international criminal court," Alonso said. Alonso said that police who arrested Gotovina, who has been on the run since the court indicted him in 2001, found 12,000 euros in cash in his hotel room, a portable computer and two false passports. The passport Gotovina was traveling on in the Canary Islands had entry and exit stamps from Tahiti, Argentina, China, Chile, Russia, the Czech Republic and as recently as Nov. 25, from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, Alonso said. "This allows one to deduce that this person had a high level of mobility," Alonso said. Gotovina was ordered jailed Thursday night by a Spanish judge pending his transfer to The Hague. Gotovina, a retired Croatian army general, was indicted by the U.N. tribunal in connection with the killings of at least 150 Serbs by troops under his command and for the expulsion of about 150,000 others during Croatia's 1991-95 war. Croatia's failure to track down Gotovina had been a key obstacle to his country's bid to start membership talks with the European Union. Croatia insisted it was not sheltering Gotovina, and the EU decided in October to move ahead with membership talks.
* The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council in May 1993.

* Based in The Hague, it is the first international body for the prosecution of war crimes since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials held in the aftermath of World War Two.

* The tribunal has jurisdiction over individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the territory of the former Yugoslavia after January 1, 1991.

* Judge Fausto Pocar of Italy is president of the tribunal. Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland is chief prosecutor.

* The tribunal may not try suspects in absentia, nor impose the death penalty. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

INDICTMENTS AND TRIALS

* To date, 48 indicted war criminals are in the detention unit in The Hague. 23 indictees have been provisionally released.

* Six accused are still at large, among them former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic. Karadzic and Mladic have been charged with the genocide of Bosnian Muslims. Three suspects, including Croatian General Ante Gotovina, are waiting to be transferred to The Hague.

MILOSEVIC INDICTMENT

* Milosevic is charged with crimes against humanity with four others -- the Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, ex-Yugoslav Defence Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic and former Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic. * The indictment covers the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes in 1999. Sainovic is charged with individual criminal responsibility. The others, including Milosevic, are charged with that as well as superior criminal responsibility for deportation and murder.

KARADZIC/MLADIC INDICTMENTS

* Two indictments are outstanding for Karadzic and Mladic. One is for attacking, detaining and killing Bosnian Muslim and Croat citizens from 1992-95 (the Bosnia and Herzegovina indictment), the other specifically for the murder of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims rounded up in Srebrenica in July 1995 (the Srebrenica indictment). Both include the most severe charge of genocide.

GOTOVINA INDICTMENT

* The tribunal charges Ante Gotovina and another general, Rahim Ademi, with atrocities against Serbs in a secret indictment in 2001. Gotovina is indicted for crimes against humanity during and after Operation Storm. The charges say he failed to prevent the murder of 150 Serbs or to punish the perpetrators.


Source: Deutsche Welle, AlertNet, Associated Press