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Ante Gotovina

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File:Gotovina in Hague.jpg
Ante Gotovina

Ante Gotovina (born October 12, 1955) is a former colonel-general of the Croatian Army who served in the 1991-1995 war in Croatia. He was indicted in 2001 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The indictment accuses him of sanctioning war crimes under his command in 1995 during Operation Storm at the end of the Croatian War. After spending four years in hiding, he was captured in Tenerife on December 7, 2005.

Gotovina is married to Croatian Army colonel Dunja Zloić with whom he has a son Ante, born in 1997. Before his second marriage, he also had a romantic relationship with Croatian Radiotelevision reporter Vesna Karuza, with whom he had a daughter Ana, born in 1994. Gotovina also has another daughter Ximena from his first marriage with Columbian journalist Ximena before the war.

French Foreign Legion and after

Gotovina was born on the Adriatic Sea island of Pašman (his father being a fisherman), but in his childhood he moved to Pakoštane near Zadar, on the Dalmatian coast of southern Croatia. At the age of 16 he left his home to become a sailor. In 1973, before he was 18, he joined the French Foreign Legion under the pseudonym of Ivan Grabovac. He became a member of the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment (REP) after qualifying in the Parachutist Training School at Pau and joined the elite Commandos de Recherche et d'Action en Profondeur (CRAP). It was there he met Dominique Erulin, brother of Colonel Philippe Erulin, known for his "interrogation activities" during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62). He participated in Foreign Legion operations in Djibouti, Kolwezi in Zaire and Ivory Coast, becoming Colonel Erulin's driver. After five years of service, he left the Legion with the rank of chief corporal; he gained French nationality in 1979.

He subsequently worked for a variety of French private security companies during the 1980s, among them KO International Company, a filial of VHP Security, known as a cover for the Service d'Action Civique (SAC), specialists of shady actions for the gaullist movement. KO International Company was also charged at this time of far-right Front National's leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's security [1] [2]. In 1981, with his comrade Dominique Erulin, he helped editor Jean-Pierre Mouchard, a close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen, organizing a commando to free his press in La Seyne sur Mer, occupied by CGT trade-union strikers.

According to the media reports on the French police records, he became involved in criminal activities, which led to arrest warrants being issued for robbery and extortion; it has been reported that he served at least one two-year prison sentence, though this has been denied by his attorneys. [3] Towards the end of the decade he moved to South America, where he provided training to a number of right-wing paramilitary organizations, notably in Argentina and Guatemala. He met his future wife, Ximena, in Colombia.

Arrested during a travel to France, he was sentenced in 1986 to five years of prison by Paris' Cour d'assise. According to a December 8, 2005 article by Radio France International (RFI), he was freed the following year, "in circumstances showing that he was benefiting from very particular protections" [4].

However, these information have never been confirmed and remain in the area of media gossip.

Gotovina's return to Croatia

File:Ante Gotovina.jpg
Ante Gotovina as Colonel-General of the Croatian Army

In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia but immediately found itself beset by a rebellion of its large Serb minority (12.16 percent of the country's population, according to a 1991 census), which was concentrated in the Krajina region along the Bosnian border and in Eastern Slavonia adjoining Serbia. The rebels were supported by the Yugoslav People's Army – which was under the de facto control of Serbia's President Slobodan Milošević – and by various paramilitary militias linked with the Serbian government. The Croatians were ill prepared and poorly armed, and within six months had lost nearly a third of their territory to the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina.

Gotovina returned to Croatia in June 1991 and enlisted in the Croatian National Guard (ZNG). He was an efficient commander and had the advantage – shared by relatively few other Croatian soldiers – of having had previous combat experience. He fought in western Slavonia: in Novska and Nova Gradiška. He soon caught the attention of his superiors. When the Croatian Army was created in 1992, Gotovina was promoted to brigadier and rose to major-general by 1994. He served as commanding officer of the Split military district between 1992 and 1996, and it was in this capacity that he participated in the controversial Operation Storm in August 1995, during which forces under his command captured Knin (proclaimed capital of the Republic of Serbian Krajina by Serb rebels and often nicknamed "Croatian Royal City" by Croats, for it was medieval capital of Croatia). He thus was lionized as a hero by lots of Croats.

The following year, he became the chief of the Army Inspectorate, but was dismissed from active service in 2000, after accusations by the Croatian newspaper Nacional that he was plotting a military coup d'état. The newspaper's chief reporter, Ivo Pukanic, also accused Army Inspectorate officials of supplying arms to foreign terrorist groups such as the Provisional IRA and ETA. The accusations remain unproved, and the Croatian government has not charged Gotovina.

War crimes controversy

In July 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) issued sealed indictments to the Croatian government seeking the arrest of Ante Gotovina and Rahim Ademi for war crimes. According to one indictment, Gotovina had both personal responsibility and command responsibility for crimes allegedly carried out against Croatian Serbs. He was indicted for crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war said to have been committed by his troops. During Operation Storm, an estimated 150,000-200000 Serbs [5] were expelled from the Krajina region, and at least 150 were said to have been murdered. The indictment charges Gotovina's troops with shooting, burning and stabbing Serb civilians to death and with destroying countless buildings in an effort to make it impossible for the Krajina's Serb inhabitants to return home.

The indictments were immediately controversial – four government ministers resigned in protest against the government's decision to cooperate with the ICTY [6] –, and they attracted strong support from the Croatian public. Prominent figures, such as the tennis star Goran Ivanišević, joined the campaign to prevent the two men from being extradited. Although Ademi decided to surrender voluntarily to the tribunal, Gotovina rejected its legitimacy and went into hiding.

For the next four years, Gotovina remained at large despite intense pressure from the United States and European Union for his surrender. Rumors abounded as to his whereabouts. In September 2005, the BBC reported he was hiding out in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia or Bosnian Croat territory. It was widely speculated that he was being assisted by elements in the Croatian government and military, and even by the Roman Catholic Church. In the same month ICTY's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte publicly accused the Vatican of protecting Gotovina, though the Church denied this. [7]

Foreign countries sought to track down Gotovina, and an Interpol warrant was issued for his arrest. The United States announced a $5 million (€4.2 million) reward for his capture. It was reported that the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) had sought to find Gotovina but that it had been thwarted after its intelligence officers were exposed in the Croatian media, allegedly at the behest of Gotovina's allies in the Croatian intelligence service, the POA. [8] The resulting scandal led to the sacking and replacement of POA head Franjo Turek.

The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and some Scandinavian states made the surrender of Gotovina a precondition for Croatia's accession to the European Union. This stance was criticised by the Croatian government, which claimed that it did not know where Gotovina was, that he was probably outside the country and that it was doing all it could to bring him to justice. Accession negotiations with the EU, scheduled to start on March 17, 2005, were postponed pending a resolution of the issue. Croatia's bid for accession was finally accepted in October 2005 as part of a deal with Austria, which supported Croatia but opposed Turkey's joining the EU. [9]. The ICTY announced at the same time that Croatia was then "cooperating fully" with the tribunal, but did not provide further details.

Public attitudes towards Gotovina

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Pro-Ante Gotovina posters in Croatia

Within Croatia, attitudes to Gotovina remain divided. Many Croatians continue to regard Gotovina as a war hero and reject the assertion that crimes were committed during the country's war of independence. But others say that Croatia's prospects depend far more on the country's accession to the EU than on the fate of one man, and General Ademi's voluntary surrender to the ICTY raised the question of why Gotovina did not follow suit. Hardline nationalist elements in Croatia have used opposition to the ICTY as a means of drumming up political support.

During his flight, Gotovina became a prominent icon of Croatian popular culture. Marko Perković (performing under his stage name "Thompson") and Miroslav Škoro, two popular Croatian musicians known for their right-wing views, recorded songs with lyrics implicitly praising the general and his flight. Both songs became huge hits, especially among younger fans.

In 2001 the Croatian writer Nenad Ivanković wrote a book Ratnik - pustolov i general (jedna biografija) (Warrior - adventurer and general (a biography)), a biography of Ante Gotovina. The Croatian filmmaker Dejan Šorak wrote and directed Dva igrača s klupe, a black comedy released in 2005 whose plot is inspired by the events surrounding the ICTY indictment against Ante Gotovina.

File:Kissing Gotovina.jpg
Pro-Gotovina Croatians demonstrating their support for him

Gotovina owes his popularity in his homeland to a number of factors. Most obvious, the former general is regarded by many as a war hero. His flight fits the ancient stereotype of an outlaw - a person who defies distant and tyrannical authorities, this time embodied in The Hague, Brussels and other Western capitals whose governments demanded his arrest. This kind of outlaw-celebrating culture is especially strong in Dinaric regions like Dalmatian hinterland and neighbouring Croat-inhabited Herzegovina. Other Croatians, regardless of their regional background, political persuasion or even attitude to wartime atrocities, praised Gotovina's flight as an act of defiance towards Croatian political establishment.

After Gotovina's arrest in Spain, several rallies and protests took place in Croatian cities. On December 11 2005 (first Sunday after arrest) a rally organised by war veterans attracted between 40,000 (Reuters estimate) and 70,000 (Croatian media estimate) Croatians in the city of Split to protest against the arrest, which is significantly smaller number than 2001 Split protest, when 100,000 people gathered in Split in support of General Mirko Norac. Several retired generals attended the rally and expressed their support for Gotovina. On the same day, rallies were held in several other cities in Croatia, but with smaller attendance (in Zagreb some 500 people gathered). [10]

According to an opinion poll published by the newspaper Jutarnji list on December 11, 60% of those surveyed believed that Gotovina was not guilty of the criminal acts with which he had been charged, 17% believed that he was mostly not responsible, and only one respondent believed that he was completely responsible. 53.4% said that the arrest was bad for Croatia, while only 23.3% said that it was good for the country. 44.6% believed that Gotovina's capture would make it easier for Croatia to join the European Union, though 36.2% believed it would not.

Capture and extradition

On December 7, 2005, Gotovina was captured by Spanish police and special forces in the resort of Playa de las Americas on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. He was said to have been traveling on a fake Croatian passport in an assumed name, Kristijan Horvat. His passport contained border stamps of several countries, including Argentina, Chile, Russia, China, Czech Republic and Tahiti. A sum of money amounting to €12,000 was discovered in his room. He was immediately flown to Madrid, where he was imprisoned in advance of a court hearing to extradite him to the ICTY prison at The Hague. Spanish police were later reported to have been tracking him for several days, apparently following a lead supplied by the Croatian intelligence service.

On December 10, 2005, Gotovina was flown to The Hague, where he appeared before the ICTY on December 12. He pleaded not guilty to the seven charges brought against him, which were:

  • Persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, deportation and other inhumane acts (forced displacement) - three counts of crimes against humanity
  • Other inhumane acts - one count of a crime against humanity
  • Murder - one count of a violation of the laws or customs of war
  • Plunder of public or private property and wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages - two counts of violations of the laws or customs of war.

According to his lawyer, Gotovina has declared that he is "not the man described in each and every count." [11] The Croatian media have reported that the Croatian government is to contribute to Gotovina's defence fund and that it has also unfrozen the former general's financial assets.

Following the death of Slobodan Milošević (who was imprisoned in ICTY prison cell just next to that of Gotovina), Ante Gotovina signed a condolence note to his family (together with Mladen Naletilić Tuta, Paško Ljubičić, Ivica Rajić and other Croat and Serb detainees, making the list 34 signatures long). This condolence note was published in Belgrade's "Politika" i "Večernje novosti" newspapers. The condolence note sparked great controversy in Croatia as Croatian president Stipe Mesić heavily criticised Serbian president Boris Tadić for sending condolences to Milošević family.[12][13]

References

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