War crimes suspect Gotovina to be sent to the Hague

A HIGH court judge ruled yesterday that Croatian war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina should be handed to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Gotovina appeared before high court judge Felix Degayon accompanied by a lawyer and a Croatian consular official.

The 50-year-old retired Croatian army general was arrested on Wednesday by special police at a hotel restaurant on the tourist island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the interior ministry said.

Spanish news agency Efe said the judge decided to send Gotovina to the high-security Soto El Real prison north of Madrid.

He also ruled that the Croatian general should then be sent to the tribunal in the Dutch capital.

Efe and other Spanish media reports said it was likely that Gotovina would be flown to the Netherlands today.

Gotovina was indicted in mid-2001 by the UN war crimes tribunal for the killing of at least 150 Serbs by troops under his command and for the expulsion of about 150,000 others during Croatia’s 1991-1995 war.

He is one of the three most wanted war crimes suspects from the former Yugoslavia.

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, who turned 50 in October, was the last wanted war crimes suspect from Croatia and his arrest will ease Zagreb’s path to joining the European Union.

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.

He was flown to Madrid 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 as he entered the courtroom wearing jeans and a blazer, a court official said.

Croatia’s state television showed the first picture of the arrested Gotovina, in a white shirt.

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.”