[ War crimes and the ICTY ]

In this "blogless" last week, the most outstanding piece of news is the arrest of the Croatian ex-General Ante Gotovina on the spanish Island of Tenerifa in the night from Wednesday (7.12.) to Thursday (8.12.). He was transfered to the ICTY on Saturday, and the first hearing will take place on Monday, 12h45. Ante Gotovina was accused in July 2001 for war crimes against the Serbian population of the Krajina region in 1995 (cf. the indictment on the ICTY webpage).

His arrest clears the way for Croatia's EU accession. In March 2005, negociations with the EU

had been postponed because Croatia had failed to arrest Gotovina. They had been taken up

again in October 2005 after Carla del Ponte had confirmed that Croatia fully co-operated with

the ICTY in finding Gotovina.

While one would expect Serbs to celebrate that a perpetrator of war crimes against Serbs was

captured, Serbian human-rights activist Natasa Kandic told the Austrian newspaper Die

Presse that the Serbian public was "shocked". The arrest of Gotovina puts pressure on

Serbia to find and arrest Ratko Mladic, who is believed to hide in Serbia, and Radovan

Karadzic, who is believed to travel between Montenegro and the Republika Srpska. According to

N. Kandic, Belgrade had relied on the fact that it could start negotiations with the EU

without worrying too much about arresting Mladic and Karadzic - such as Croatia had done in

October, before Gotovina was captured.

Kroatien ist für Serbien eine Art Modell auf dem Weg in die Europäische Union. Und so war es

Belgrad gar nicht unrecht, dass Zagreb EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen starten durfte, obwohl

Gotovina noch in Freiheit war. Serbiens Regierung dachte dabei an seine eigenen Probleme in

punkto Kriegsverbrecher. (Die Presse, 10.12.2005)

In Croatia ten thousands of war veterans and supporters of Gotovina demonstrated against the

arrest of their "national hero" and "liberator from the Serbian occupators". The Croatian

government carefully underlined that finding out the truth about Gotovina was in the interest

of Croatia, but officially declared that the 1995 war was just and legitimate as it was

conducted in self-defense to the Serbian aggression.

When he was arrested, Ante Gotovina had two false passports with him, in which he had visas

from Tahiti, Argentina, China, Chile, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Mauritius. These

extensive travels must have been financed by an extensive network of supporters...

The ICTY, which will operate until 2009, is still looking for six indictees (out of 161), all of them

Serbs: Radovan Karadzic (60) and Ratko Mladic (62), the political and military leaders of the

Bosnian Serbs during the war in Bosnia and especially the genocide in Srebrenica; Zdravko

Tolimir (57), one of Mladic's associates; Goran Hadzic (47), political leader of the Krajina

Serbs; Stojan Zupljanin (54), head of the Serbian intelligence in Bosnia; Vlastimir

Djordjevic (58), accused of war crimes in Kosovo and believed to hide in Russia.

Link: ICTY newspage where you can subscribe to a mailing list to keep updated about the trials and judgements

Photo: Pro-Gotovina demonstrations in Croatia - source: Tagesschau webpage