War Criminals on Vacation-

[welsh]

It's a sorry world when a war criminal can't go on holiday to the Canary Islands-

Justice catches up with Gotovina

Dec 8th 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda

One of the world’s most wanted war-crimes suspects, Ante Gotovina, has been arrested and will join Slobodan Milosevic and others in the dock at a UN tribunal in The Hague. But two other “big fish” wanted over atrocities during the 1990s Balkan conflicts are still at large

IT HAS taken years for justice to arrive for the many victims of the wars that followed Yugoslavia’s break-up in the early 1990s. But the United Nations’ war-crimes tribunal for the Balkans, set up in 1993, has now rounded up almost all of the 161 people it has indicted—most notably, Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president now being tried at the tribunal, in The Hague. And on Thursday December 8th, the court’s tenacious chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, announced the arrest of one of the remaining three “big fish” still at large: Ante Gotovina, a former Croatian general who is accused, among other things, of responsibility for the massacre of 150 Serbs.

Sorry Ratboy, but I worry that this is becoming old news to most of the world. We have too many current atrocities happening in other places- Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan...

ANd the Molosevic trial grinds along so damn slowly. It's no wonder people are losing faith in all of this.

Mr Gotovina had been on the run since his indictment in 2001. He was arrested on Wednesday on the Spanish island of Tenerife and is now being held by the Spanish authorities in Madrid, awaiting proceedings to bring him before the UN tribunal.

"What? A War Criminal can't enjoy a good topless beach!"

Croatia’s efforts to join the European Union have until now been hampered by the failure to arrest Mr Gotovina, despite its protestations that it knew nothing of his whereabouts. Many Croatians still regard the general as a war hero, not a war criminal, though a senior Croatian official said he was “extremely happy” to hear the news of the general’s arrest, since it will free his government of a problem that has dogged its foreign relations for years. Britain, which holds the EU presidency, said his capture would help speed Croatia’s entry into the Union.

Any Croats want to come to the General's defense?

Mr Gotovina, a former French foreign legionary,

What an interesting thing to have on your resume

fought in both the Croatian and Bosnian wars of the early 1990s. But it was his part in the final stages of the war in Croatia that attracted attention from war-crimes investigators. In August 1995 he was in overall command of troops who retook the main part of the breakaway “Republic of Serbian Krajina”. The local Serbs, with a lot of help from Serbia and their Bosnian Serb neighbours, had prised this land away from Croatian control in 1991.

Mr Gotovina’s men took only a few days to crush what little Serb resistance there was. In the aftermath of the attack, almost all the region’s population, of up to 200,000, fled. But in the following weeks, hundreds of mainly elderly Serbs who had stayed behind were murdered, and thousands of buildings were torched and destroyed.

If the general had been arrested soon after his indictment on seven counts of war crimes, then that would, more or less, have been the end of the story. However, protected by elements of the Croatian security services, the general disappeared. In March of this year the EU, disbelieving the government’s claims that it was doing everything to track him down, blocked the country’s progress towards membership. But in late September things began to move: the Croatians (who might have had some American help) passed on a lead to the tribunal, which suggested the general was in Spain.

So the general got sold out?

The timing of this tip was fortunate in the extreme. A few days later, on October 3rd, EU leaders were to meet in Luxembourg, to discuss (among other things) whether to start membership talks with Croatia. In the hours leading up to the meeting, Ms Del Ponte suddenly told the EU leaders that the Balkan country was now “co-operating fully” with her. This prompted them to agree to open the membership talks, though they made it clear to the Croats that their progress would depend on their continuing to co-operate and Mr Gotovina eventually being arrested.

At the time, there were suspicions that political pressure had pushed Ms Del Ponte into making her statement, since a split among EU governments over Croatia’s entry talks was threatening to scupper the start of negotiations with Turkey. However, the prosecutor now has the satisfaction of being able to show she was right all along.

Some, more thoughtful Croatians will also have reasons to be pleased. First, because Mr Gotovina’s arrest should indeed speed Croatia’s eventually becoming part of the prosperous European heartland. Second, because the diplomatic pressure to assist in his capture has already had beneficial effects on Croatia, in particular by forcing the government to bring the recalcitrant parts of the security services under control.

Perhaps one of the best aspects of European Union- the capture or suppression of more disagreeable parties?

Two big fish still to catch
With Mr Gotovina on his way to the dock in The Hague, that leaves only six of the UN tribunal’s 161 indictees still at large—all of them Serbs. Of these, the most notorious two are Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, and General Ratko Mladic, who commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the war of 1992-95. Both of them have been indicted for even more heinous crimes than Mr Gotovina, including the tribunal’s most serious charge, that of genocide.

Is it surprising that these two are still at large?

Both Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina recently began negotiating their first steps towards opening EU membership talks. But, like Croatia, they have been told they will not get far until Messrs Karadzic and Mladic are arrested. So will the authorities in Serbia, and the administration in the Serb part of Bosnia, now deliver? Sometimes the Serbs claim that their remaining fugitives are no longer in their territory, as Croatia had insisted—correctly as it turned out—of Mr Gotovina. But there are suspicions that the Serbs’ security services know more about the suspects’ movements than they are letting on. And, unlike in Croatia, the pressure from the EU and the UN tribunal is not yet thought to have forced the Serbs to bring their security men fully under civilian control. Until this happens, and the remaining fugitives are in The Hague standing trial, the Serbs will remain out in the cold.

Cooperate politically or suffer economically. But is European Unity that much of a carrot for the Serbs to wield their stick.

 

[Ratty Sr.]

Any Croats want to come to the General's defense?

Many do, and they are invariably ultranationalist morons, social parasites and evolutionary throwbacks.

Mr Gotovina, a former French foreign legionary,

What an interesting thing to have on your resume

Not to mention that he was wanted by the authorities in France before the war. Gotovina is a rogue, an international criminal and most likely guilty of the war crimes they accuse him of. Sure, he is charismatic and "cool", but so is Jesse James, and that doesn't make him any less of an outlaw.

So the general got sold out?

Yes - by Hrvoje Petrač, a Croatian crimelord wanted by the Croatian authorities for his role in kidnapping of the young son of Vladimir Zagorec, a former international firearms smuggler and retired Croatian general. Petrač, whose wealth and notorious closeness to the political establishment make him one of the most powerful men in Croatia, was a central figure in the network which provided the general-turned-fugitive Gotovina with financial and logistical aid. Petrač, who fled the country when his connection with the Zagorec kidnapping was discovered (that was last year or the year before that, I'm not sure anymore), was arrested in Greece some months ago with invaluable aid from Croatian intelligence services, after which he most likely divulged Gotovina's whereabouts.

Is it surprising that these two are still at large?

Not at all, since neither the authorities of Republika Srpska, nor the authorities of Serbia and Montenegro, nor the authorities of the United States, nor the authorities of any damn country or organization that has even the slightest capacity or opportunity to arrest the two fugitives care to do so.

Cooperate politically or suffer economically. But is European Unity that much of a carrot for the Serbs to wield their stick.

It should be, but remember that Serbia is still buried so deep in the mud of callous ultranationalism that most Serbs would rather gnaw on tree branches than renounce their beloved butchers.

 

[DirtyDreamDesigner]

Any Croats want to come to the General's defense?

Many do, and they are invariably ultranationalist morons, social parasites and evolutionary throwbacks.

Unfortunately 61% Croatians felt "sad" when they heard of the arrest and there were/are/will be massive protests about it. Also (not sure about the figures) I believe that more people consider him a hero than a criminal.

I am yet to form a solid oppinion on this matter as there are too many variables to be considered and there are too many things that were BS'ed into nothingness and I try to stay the fuck away from any debate about Gotovina as it tends to turn violent easily. The fact remains that Gotovinas loudest supporters are "ultranationalist morons, social parasites and evolutionary throwbacks" as Ratty so eloquently put it.

On the one hand it is quite possible that Gotovina was a scapegoat for the politicians in power (there is even footage of him chastising the men under his command for the "chaos" that followed the military action, which, by the way, was 100% justified, only the things that happened later are questionable), on the other hand, like the Rat said he was a wanted criminal and a Soldier of Fortune and was in hiding with the help of the underground...

 

[Ratty Sr.]

On the one hand it is quite possible that Gotovina was a scapegoat for the politicians in power

He was. Tuđman, Šušak and the group gathered around them were the ideologists and directors of all Croatian war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia, whereas officials like Gotovina and Ademi were only the executioners. That doesn't absolve them of responsibility, though. If they actively orchestrated war crimes, they are culpable for obvious reasons. If, on the other hand, crimes merely occured under their jurisdiction, they are still guilty of negligence.