BALKANS: General’s Arrest Creates Dilemma

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Dec 8 2005 (IPS) - Fugitive Croatian general Ante Gotovina wanted for war crimes against Serbs in 1995 was arrested in Spain Thursday, and awaits extradition to the international war crimes tribunal.

“I have very good news, since Ante Gotovina was arrested this night (Wednesday-Thursday) in Spain,” chief prosecutor of the United Nations (UN) founded International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte announced on a short visit to the Serbian capital. “He is in detention now and he finally will be transferred to The Hague.”

The general was arrested in a hotel room in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. He has already been transferred to Madrid pending extradition.

The arrest of the controversial general sparked divisive reactions in Croatia and in Serbia.

In Croatia news of the arrest brought dismay in nationalist circles. In Serbia authorities were reminded that they have failed to hand over Bosnian Serb war leaders Radovan Karadzic and Gen.. Ratko Mladic, accused of atrocities against non-Serbs.

Failure to arrest these three has delayed the European Union (EU) entry process of both Croatia and Serbia, though Croatia is a good deal ahead of Serbia.

“The danger for Croatia has been removed,” Zagreb analyst Davor Djenero told IPS on phone. “This removed a big burden for Croatia. But this is also a clear message for Serbia, a kind of pressure for it to extradite Karadzic and Mladic. This is a very good moment for the final facing of the past in the region.”

In an operation code-named ‘Storm’, men under Gotovina’s command killed some 150 Serb civilians and torched thousands of Serb homes, the ICTY indictment says.

Gotovina and a group of Croatian leaders had conspired to evict all Serbs from Croatia, the indictment says. More than 200,000 Serbs fled, and few have returned.

But many Croats see Gotovina as a national hero who ended Serb opposition to Croatia’s independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991-95.

“This is a sad and hard day for Croatia and all the defenders of Croatia in the war,” said Ante Djapic, leader of the ultranationalist Croatian Party of the Right. In a statement to Croatian media he described news on the arrest as “horrible”.

But Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader from the rightist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) told reporters that “the historic truths about the homeland war deserve to be told before the court (ICTY). The rule of law does not provide for anyone to be above the law. Gotovina goes to The Hague with the presumption of innocence.”

Sanader’s remark came after rumours spread in Zagreb and in Gotovina’s native region Dalmatia that protest rallies are to be held against the government for cooperating in the extradition of Gotovina.

Zagreb police spokesman Zlatko Mehun told Croatian media that “the forces are ready to keep law and order, regardless of the reason for rallies. Anything contrary to the law and norms of behaviour will be adequately sanctioned.”

Carla del Ponte thanked Croatia in Belgrade for “all the work they have done with us (the ICTY) since September.” She said the search for Gotovina that led to his arrest had lasted months.

Opinion polls suggest that more than half of Croats are against the extradition of Gotovina even if that meant easier access to the EU.

But the Serb government will now be under the spotlight to find the wanted Serbs.

Del Ponte piled on the pressure on Serbia. “It is scandalous that Serbia has still not found the two, Karadzic and Mladic,” she told reporters.

But in Belgrade where the conservative and nationalist government of Vojislav Kostunica is in power, the message on the need to arrest Karadzic and Mladic fell on deaf ears. No official was willing to comment on the arrest of Gotovina, or on Del Ponte’s call for the arrest of the wanted Serbs.

“The visit of the chief prosecutor came only a week before she is to report to the UN Security Council on Serbia’s cooperation with the tribunal,” Goran Svilanovic, top official of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe told IPS. The pact is an EU initiative to improve relations with countries of the region.

“In case it is negative, this will mean that all the negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU will be stopped, and the nation will not become closer to the Partnership for Peace Programme, which were the top issues on the agenda of the Serbian government,” he added.

Before leaving Belgrade, Del Ponte told reporters that “Belgrade is not cooperating” and that her assessment “will not be positive.”