Top war crime suspect caught in Spain

Published: 9:15AM Friday December 09, 2005 Source: Reuters

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Fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina, one of the three most wanted war crimes suspects from the former Yugoslavia, has been arrested in Spain, UN chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said on Thursday.
   
His detention is a major boost for the international war crimes tribunal and brought immediate calls for extra efforts to catch its top fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.
   
Gotovina was the last wanted war crimes suspect from Croatia and his arrest will ease Zagreb's path to joining the European Union.
   
He was indicted in 2001 for alleged atrocities when Croatian forces retook parts of the country from Serb rebels in 1995 and has been in hiding since.
   
"He was arrested this night in Spain...he is now in detention, finally. He will be transferred to The Hague," Del Ponte said on a visit to Belgrade.
   
Gotovina, carrying a false Croatian passport, was arrested in a luxury hotel restaurant in the well-known Tenerife resort of Playa de las Americas on the Canary Islands, Spain said.
   
He was then flown to Madrid on Thursday and taken to the High Court where a judge read him the charges against him to start the process of handing him over to The Hague.
   
Gotovina, who speaks good Spanish, appeared calm, unruffled and suntanned as he entered the courtroom wearing jeans and a blazer, a court official said.
   
He will spend the night in a Madrid jail, the official said, but it was not clear when he would leave for the UN court in the Netherlands, set up to try war crimes from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
   
Gotovina's arrest will help Croatia's bid to join the EU, which was long sceptical over how hard Zagreb was trying to track down a man many Croats deem a national hero.
   
"This removes an important obstacle in Croatia's accession progress and will send a good signal to the rest of the region," a spokesman for the British EU presidency said.
   
"We look forward to seeing Karadzic and Mladic following him as soon as possible."
   
Serbia is also seeking to join the bloc and has been under pressure to help catch the pair. Talking about Gotovina's arrest, Serbian President Boris Tadic said in Brussels:
   
"I congratulate Croatia. It's very important. We have to do this in all countries in the region." 
   
No protests planned for local hero
   
Gotovina is charged with responsibility for the murders of at least 150 Serbs by troops under his command in the aftermath of the 1995 "Operation Storm", as well as for pillage and destruction of their property. He has denied any wrongdoing.
   
Croatia long claimed Gotovina, an ex-Foreign Legionnaire, fled abroad before his indictment was made public. He was later reportedly seen in Italy, Ireland, Bosnia and South Africa.
   
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the arrest abroad was "the final confirmation of Croatia's credibility".
   
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in Brussels: "My information is that the Croatian government cooperated well with Spanish authorities."
   
Croatia stepped up the hunt after Brussels delayed opening talks on membership in March because he was still free, ordering its security agencies to do their best.
   
The EU opened the talks in October, after Del Ponte said she was now satisfied with Zagreb's efforts, but warned it could suspend the talks if Croatia dragged its feet over the hunt.
   
Until recently, the general was so popular that posters with his picture, captioned "hero, not criminal", were popping up all over Croatia, showing the thick-set soldier in various poses.
   
Gotovina's biography, published by a right-wing journalist under the title "Warrior, adventurer, general", portrayed him as a macho soldier who braved death and loved women.
   
Six Serbs or Bosnian Serbs are still on the run. Karadzic and Mladic face the gravest charges of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims and the siege of Sarajevo, which killed over 10,000. They have eluded capture for a decade.
   
"I'm still angry because Karadzic and Mladic are still at large, and that is a real scandal," Del Ponte said.

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