Ante Gotovina
Encyclopedia
Ante Gotovina is a former Senior Corporal (Caporal Chef) of the French Foreign Legion
and former Lieutenant General
(general pukovnik) of the Croatian Army who served in the Croatian War for Independence. He was indicted in 2001 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
, accusing him of a "joint criminal enterprise" in an effort to expel Krajina Serbs from Croatia
in 1995 during Operation Storm
. After spending four years in hiding, he was captured in the Canary Islands
on December 7, 2005. On April 15, 2011, Gotovina was found guilty on seven of the eight counts of the indictment and sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment.
under the pseudonym
of Andrija Grabovac and became a member of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment
(2e REP) after qualifying at the Training School in Pau before joining the elite Commandos de Recherche et d'Action en Profondeur
(CRAP) now renamed as Parachute Commando Group (GCP). It was there he met Dominique Erulin, brother of the Colonel Philippe Erulin
, who would be his friend and partner in future missions. In the next few years, he participated in Foreign Legion operations in Djibouti
, the Battle of Kolwezi
in Zaire
, and missions in the Ivory Coast, becoming Colonel Erulin's driver. After five years of service, he left the Legion with the rank of caporal-chef; he obtained French citizenship 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), and was at this time responsible for the security of far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen
. In 1981, together with Dominique Erulin, he helped editor Jean-Pierre Mouchard (a close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen) organize a commando to free his press in La Seyne-sur-Mer
, occupied by CGT
trade-union strikers.
According to 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. Dominique Erulin claims the accusations were a political ploy made up by the left-wing factions allied with President François Mitterrand
. 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 Dalel, in Colombia
and had a daughter; they later divorced.
Arrested during a travel to France (Paris), he was sentenced in 1986 to five years of prison by Paris' Cour d'assise. He was freed the next year, "in circumstances showing that he was benefiting from very particular protections". However, Gotovina's lawyers have submitted a brief to the International War Crimes Tribunal alleging that Gotovina was in fact framed by a criminal police group loyal to Francois Mitterrand, a group which was convicted for official misconduct by French courts in 2005.
. The Serbian government, led by its President Slobodan Milošević
, then launched various paramilitary militias to take control of various parts of Croatia, eventually followed by a conventional military assault from the Yugoslav National Army
which had come under the de facto control of the Serbian President. The new Croatian army, formed in haste, managed to stop the advance of Belgrade's troops, and Croatia was internationally recognised on 15 January 1992. The Belgrade army then withdrew but left the third of Croatia in which there lived the significant Serb population in the hands of the local Serbs. The rebels had first formed "Autonomous Serb Districts" (Srpske autonomne oblasti or SAOs) which merged into a self-proclaimed "Republic of the Serb Krajina"
(Republika Srpske Krajine or RSK) in 1991, encompassing a series of border areas, mostly where the Croatian Serb population was the majority.
Gotovina returned to Croatia in 1991 and enlisted in the Croatian National Guard
(ZNG), the first organized military body of what would become the Croatian Army. He was an efficient commander and had the advantage – shared by relatively few other Croatian soldiers – of combat experience. He fought in western Slavonia
: in Novska
and Nova Gradiška
. He soon caught the attention of his superiors, and when the Croatian Army was established as such in 1992, Gotovina was promoted to Colonel
. As a colonel he was, along with Janko Bobetko
and Anto Roso one of the main organizers of Operation Maslenica
, which restored Croatia's territorial continuity in Dalmatia.
By 1994 he had risen to the rank of major-general and, as a general-pukovnik and commanding officer of the Split
military district he organized key military operations: the defense of Livno
and Tomislavgrad
from the troops of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić
, and the ten-month war of attrition which broke the Serb defenses in the Plain of Livno, the Dinara
Ridge and the Šator
mountain. He led the conquest of Glamoč
and Bosansko Grahovo
(Operation Summer '95
), which enabled him to close from the east the encirclement of Knin
, the "capital" of the self-proclaimed "Republic of the Serb Krajina"
(RSK). This ensured the conditions for the rapid success of Operation Oluja ("Storm"
) of August 4–6, 1995, in the course of which forces under his command captured Knin
, which the Croats called the "Royal City of Croatia" since it had been the capital of the Croatian Kingdom in the Middle Ages.
Gotovina was then immediately put in charge of the combined forces of the Croatian Army (Hrvatska Vojska or HV) and the Croatian Defense Council in Bosnia (Hrvatsko Vijeće Obrane or HVO) in Operation Mistral
, which defeated the army of the Bosnian Serbs and led the Croatian army, together with the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina
, within 23 kilometres of Banja Luka
and was only stopped under American pressure. His success is why he is seen as a hero by many Croats.
In 1996, he became the chief of the Army Inspectorate. In September 2000, Gotovina was a signatory to the Twelve Generals' Letter
, and was subsequently dismissed from active service.
(ICTY) issued sealed indictments to the Croatian government seeking the arrest of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač
for war crimes.
For the four years (2001–2005), Gotovina remained at large despite intense pressure from the United States
and the European Union
for his surrender. In September 2005, ICTY's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte
claimed she had information that he was hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia or Bosnian Croat territory. She went to the Vatican to ask for help in locating him, but told The Daily Telegraph
that Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo
had refused to help, telling her that the Vatican was not a state and thus had "no international obligations". Her comments infuriated the Church in Croatia as well as the Vatican, whose spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the archbishop asked Del Ponte what evidence she had to her claims, but she didn't provide any.
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 one of Croatia' many intelligence services, the POA (Protuobavještajna agencija or "Counter-Intelligence Agency"). 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 gained Croatia's admission in exchange for dropping its opposition to Turkey
's candidacy. The ICTY announced at the same time that Croatia was then "cooperating fully" with the tribunal, but did not provide further details.
During his flight, Gotovina became a prominent icon of Croatian popular culture. Marko Perković
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 2006, the two most popular football teams in the country, Dinamo Zagreb
and Hajduk Split, played a game in which all proceeds went to help finance Croatian generals.
Gotovina's popularity can be explained through several reasons: most obvious, he is regarded by many as a war hero. His flight fits the ancient Croatian stereotype of an outlaw
, especially the hajduk
- a person who defies distant and tyrannical authorities, this time embodied in The Hague, Brussels and other Western capitals whose governments demanded his arrest. There is an outlaw-celebrating culture of hajduks in Dinaric
regions like the Dalmatian hinterland and neighbouring Croat-inhabited western Herzegovina
and, in general, in all of the Balkans
. Other Croats, regardless of their regional background, political persuasion or even attitude to wartime atrocities, praised Gotovina's flight as an act of defiance towards the Croatian political establishment.
In March 2005, a survey conducted on behalf of the U.S. Embassy in Croatia reported that 39% surveyed "completely disagree" that it is in Croatia's interest to extradite Gotovina while 15% "mostly disagree." Unofficial polls by television programs showed strong support, with over 90% of callers saying that they would prefer Gotovina to remain at large even if it meant not joining the European Union.
After Gotovina's arrest in Spain, several rallies and protests took place in Croatian cities. On December 11, 2005 (the first Sunday after his arrest), a rally organised by war veterans attracted between 40,000 and 70,000 Croatians in the city of Split
to protest the arrest. 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).
Polls taken by the PULS Agency after Gotovina's arrest showed that 61% of the Croatian public saw Gotovina's arrest as bad news, while 14% saw it as good news, and the rest didn't know or have an opinion. On whether or not the accusations against the general had merit, 62% found the accusations baseless while only 17% thought they had merit, and the rest did not know. According to another opinion poll published by the left leaning 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 .
In 2001 the Croatian writer Nenad Ivanković wrote a biography of Ante Gotovina titled Warrior-Adventurer and General (A Biography). 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.
police and special forces in the resort of Playa de las Américas
on Tenerife
in the Canary Islands
. He was said to have been traveling on two fake Croatian passports using the names, Kristijan Horvat and Stjepan Senicic. 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, who have been tapping his wife Dunja's phone. The involvement of Croatian authorities has been backed up by the Carla's List documentary, a part of which is available on YouTube.
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 all preceded with "acting individually and/or through [his] participation in the joint criminal enterprise, planned, instigated, ordered, committed, and/or aided and abetted the planning, preparation, and/or execution of":
According to his lawyer, Gotovina has declared that he is "not the man described in each and every count."
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) which was published in Belgrade
's Politika
and Večernje novosti
newspapers. Gotovina's attorney stated he signed because of his Catholic faith which stresses forgiveness.
, the American lawyer who advised the prosecution in the Iraqi Special Tribunal case against Saddam Hussein
, and Payam Akhavan
, former Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICTY.
The trial began on March 11, 2008, and concluded in September 2010 with the delivery of closing arguments. Misetic said he expected a verdict in two to 10 months' time, as has been the case with the tribunal's decisions to date. On April 15, 2011, Gotovina was found guilty on 7 of the 8 counts of the indictment and sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment.
stated that the idea of a "joint criminal enterprise" was "unacceptable" as many Croatians feel it was part of their war for independence. War veterans staged a march in the Croatian capital in protest. About 10,000 showed up to the march, chanting slogans against the Kosor-led government and the EU as protesters removed and ripped apart the European Union flag from a flagpole at the main square, replacing it with the Croatian flag.
A poll done immediately after the verdict showed that 95.4% of Croatians felt that the judgment against Gotovina was unjust, and 88% still saw him as a hero. Support for Croatia's accession to the European Union plummeted to 23.8%.
In June 2011, Ante Gotovina was ranked the second most creditable individual for the creation of the sovereign and democratic Croatia in a large poll conducted by Večernji list
.
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
and former Lieutenant General
Croatian military ranks
-Army and air force ranks:Labels ranks for members of the Croatian Ground Army and Croatian Air Force and Defense are identical, except that the ranks of the Ground Army are gold and of the Air Force and Defense are silver.-Navy ranks:...
(general pukovnik) of the Croatian Army who served in the Croatian War for Independence. He was indicted in 2001 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
, accusing him of a "joint criminal enterprise" in an effort to expel Krajina Serbs from Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
in 1995 during Operation Storm
Operation Storm
Operation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to gain back control of parts of Croatia which had been claimed by separatist ethnic Serbs, since early...
. After spending four years in hiding, he was captured in the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
on December 7, 2005. On April 15, 2011, Gotovina was found guilty on seven of the eight counts of the indictment and sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment.
French Foreign Legion and after
At the age of sixteen, Gotovina left home to become a sailor. In 1973, before turning eighteen, he joined the French Foreign LegionFrench Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Andrija Grabovac and became a member of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment
2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment
The 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment is an Airborne regiment of the French Foreign Legion. It is a part of the 11e Brigade Parachutiste and the spearhead of the French Rapid reaction force.-Indochina:...
(2e REP) after qualifying at the Training School in Pau before joining the elite Commandos de Recherche et d'Action en Profondeur
Commando Parachute Group
The Commando Parachute Group is a special forces unit in the 11th Parachute Brigade of the French Army that is within the second "circle" of authority of the Commandement des Opérations Spéciales....
(CRAP) now renamed as Parachute Commando Group (GCP). It was there he met Dominique Erulin, brother of the Colonel Philippe Erulin
Philippe Erulin
Philippe Louis Edmé Marie François Erulin was a French Army officer. He gained notoriety in Algeria for taking part in the torture of Henri Alleg, and in Africa for leading the Battle of Kolwezi.- Biography :...
, who would be his friend and partner in future missions. In the next few years, he participated in Foreign Legion operations in Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
, the Battle of Kolwezi
Battle of Kolwezi
The Battle of Kolwezi was an airborne operation by the French Army that took place in May 1978 in Zaire during the Shaba II invasion of Zaire by the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo. It aimed at rescuing European and Zairian hostages held by Katangese rebels after they conquered the...
in Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
, and missions in the Ivory Coast, becoming Colonel Erulin's driver. After five years of service, he left the Legion with the rank of caporal-chef; he obtained French citizenship 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
Service d'Action Civique
The SAC , officially created in January 1960, was a Gaullist militia founded by Jacques Foccart, Charles de Gaulle's chief adviser for African matters, and Pierre Debizet, a former Resistant and official director of the group...
(SAC), and was at this time responsible for the security of far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
. In 1981, together with Dominique Erulin, he helped editor Jean-Pierre Mouchard (a close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen) organize a commando to free his press in La Seyne-sur-Mer
La Seyne-sur-Mer
La Seyne-sur-Mer, or La Seyne is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is part of the agglomeration of Toulon, and is situated adjacent to the west of this city.-Economy:...
, occupied by CGT
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
trade-union strikers.
According to French police records, he became involved in criminal activities, which led to arrest warrants being issued for robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
and extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
; it has been reported that he served at least one two-year prison sentence, though this has been denied by his attorneys. Dominique Erulin claims the accusations were a political ploy made up by the left-wing factions allied with President François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
. Towards the end of the decade he moved to South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, where he provided training to a number of right-wing paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
organizations, notably in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. He met his future wife, Ximena Dalel, in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and had a daughter; they later divorced.
Arrested during a travel to France (Paris), he was sentenced in 1986 to five years of prison by Paris' Cour d'assise. He was freed the next year, "in circumstances showing that he was benefiting from very particular protections". However, Gotovina's lawyers have submitted a brief to the International War Crimes Tribunal alleging that Gotovina was in fact framed by a criminal police group loyal to Francois Mitterrand, a group which was convicted for official misconduct by French courts in 2005.
Return to Croatia
In 1991, Croatia declared independence from YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. The Serbian government, led by its President Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
, then launched various paramilitary militias to take control of various parts of Croatia, eventually followed by a conventional military assault from the Yugoslav National Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
which had come under the de facto control of the Serbian President. The new Croatian army, formed in haste, managed to stop the advance of Belgrade's troops, and Croatia was internationally recognised on 15 January 1992. The Belgrade army then withdrew but left the third of Croatia in which there lived the significant Serb population in the hands of the local Serbs. The rebels had first formed "Autonomous Serb Districts" (Srpske autonomne oblasti or SAOs) which merged into a self-proclaimed "Republic of the Serb Krajina"
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...
(Republika Srpske Krajine or RSK) in 1991, encompassing a series of border areas, mostly where the Croatian Serb population was the majority.
Gotovina returned to Croatia in 1991 and enlisted in the Croatian National Guard
Croatian National Guard
The Croatian National Guard was the name of the first modern Croatian military force. Croatian president Franjo Tuđman signed to law the Decree of Formation of the Croatian National Guard on April 20, 1991 which became the first professional armed forces with defence and training duties.These...
(ZNG), the first organized military body of what would become the Croatian Army. He was an efficient commander and had the advantage – shared by relatively few other Croatian soldiers – of combat experience. He fought in western Slavonia
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
: in Novska
Novska
Novska is a town in Croatian Slavonia, located between Kutina and Nova Gradiška, southeast of the capital, Zagreb. It has a total population of 13,573 in the following settlements:* Bair, population 6* Borovac, population 276* Brestača, population 911...
and Nova Gradiška
Nova Gradiška
Nova Gradiška is a city located in the Brod-Posavina County of Croatia, population 14,196 . It is located in the historic region of Slavonia, near the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina....
. He soon caught the attention of his superiors, and when the Croatian Army was established as such in 1992, Gotovina was promoted to Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
. As a colonel he was, along with Janko Bobetko
Janko Bobetko
Janko Bobetko was a Croatian Army general and Chief of the General Staff during the Croatian War of Independence from 1992 until his retirement in 1995. Bobetko had been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia but died before he could be tried...
and Anto Roso one of the main organizers of Operation Maslenica
Operation Maslenica
In early September, 1991, during the opening stages of the Croatian War of Independence, Serb-dominated units of the Knin Corps of the Yugoslav People's Army , under the command of Colonel Ratko Mladić and supported by the ethnic Serb Krajina militia, conducted offensive operations against areas...
, which restored Croatia's territorial continuity in Dalmatia.
By 1994 he had risen to the rank of major-general and, as a general-pukovnik and commanding officer of the Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
military district he organized key military operations: the defense of Livno
Livno
Livno is a town in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located between Tomislavgrad, Glamoč, Bosansko Grahovo, Kupres and the Croatian border.- Position :...
and Tomislavgrad
Tomislavgrad
Tomislavgrad is a town and municipality in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is in the Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Herzegovina region.- Name :...
from the troops of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić
Ratko Mladić
Ratko Mladić is an accused war criminal and a former Bosnian Serb military leader. On May 31, 2011, Mladić was extradited to The Hague, where he was processed at the detention center that holds suspects for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia...
, and the ten-month war of attrition which broke the Serb defenses in the Plain of Livno, the Dinara
Dinara
Dinara is a mountain located on the border of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of its summits, also called Dinara, is the highest point in Croatia at 1,831 m and a prominence of 728 m.-Etymology:...
Ridge and the Šator
Šator
Šator is a mountain in the Dinaric Alps, in the western regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name šator means "tent". The highest peak Veliki Šator is a.s.l...
mountain. He led the conquest of Glamoč
Glamoc
Glamoč is a town and municipality of the same name in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is in Canton 10, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
and Bosansko Grahovo
Bosansko Grahovo
Bosansko Grahovo is a town and municipality in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located near the border with Croatia, near the towns of Drvar, Livno and Glamoč...
(Operation Summer '95
Operation Summer '95
Operation Summer '95 was a joint military offensive of Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council forces launched in Western Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995 during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War...
), which enabled him to close from the east the encirclement of Knin
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
, the "capital" of the self-proclaimed "Republic of the Serb Krajina"
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...
(RSK). This ensured the conditions for the rapid success of Operation Oluja ("Storm"
Operation Storm
Operation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to gain back control of parts of Croatia which had been claimed by separatist ethnic Serbs, since early...
) of August 4–6, 1995, in the course of which forces under his command captured Knin
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
, which the Croats called the "Royal City of Croatia" since it had been the capital of the Croatian Kingdom in the Middle Ages.
Gotovina was then immediately put in charge of the combined forces of the Croatian Army (Hrvatska Vojska or HV) and the Croatian Defense Council in Bosnia (Hrvatsko Vijeće Obrane or HVO) in Operation Mistral
Operation Mistral
Operation Mistral were two linked military offensives of the Croatian Army, Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Croatian Defence Council launched in Western Bosnia and Herzegovina during September 1995 as part of the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War...
, which defeated the army of the Bosnian Serbs and led the Croatian army, together with the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina
Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the military force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina established by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 following the outbreak of the Bosnian War...
, within 23 kilometres of Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
and was only stopped under American pressure. His success is why he is seen as a hero by many Croats.
In 1996, he became the chief of the Army Inspectorate. In September 2000, Gotovina was a signatory to the Twelve Generals' Letter
Twelve Generals' Letter
The Twelve Generals' Letter was an open letter, signed by twelve generals of the Croatian Armed Forces, that criticized the government, politicians and media for perceived criminalization of the Croatian War of Independence and asserted that war veterans had suffered undignified treatment...
, and was subsequently dismissed from active service.
War crimes indictment
In July 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) issued sealed indictments to the Croatian government seeking the arrest of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač
Mladen Markac
Mladen Markač , is a former Croatian military officer. He was a Commander of Croatian Special Police during Operation Storm during the Croatian War of Independence , and afterwords held the rank of Colonel General...
for war crimes.
Gotovina, together with his co-accused Mladen Markač, a former commander of the special police of Croatia's interior ministry, and Ivan Čermak, assistant defense minister from 1991 to 1993, is charged with leading the three month long “Operation Storm", which resulted in the recapture of Croatia's Serb-held Krajina region in 1995 and changed the course of the war of independence. The three stand accused of aiding and abetting the murders of 324 Krajina Serb civilians and prisoners of war by "shooting, burning and/or stabbing" them and forcibly displacing almost 90,000 Serb civilians. Gotovina was charged with five counts of crimes against humanity (persecutions, deportation inhumane acts, murder) and four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war (plunder, wanton destruction, murder, cruel treatment) but he denied all charges."
Gotovina was convicted of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, deportation, persecution and inhuman acts, during and immediately after a lightning campaign called Operation Storm that seized back land along Croatia's eastern border taken over by rebel Serbs early in the Balkan wars. Dozens of Serbs were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes.
Presiding Judge Alphons Orie cited one witness who recalled finding his elderly mother and mentally ill brother shot dead after hearing a Croatian soldier say, "I killed another one."
The first prosecution witness in the case told judges artillery shells rained down on the city of Knin, hitting apartment blocks and a medical clinic.
"As I ran, shells were falling around me," the witness said. Her identity was not released by the court.
For the four years (2001–2005), Gotovina remained at large despite intense pressure from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
for his surrender. In September 2005, ICTY's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in August...
claimed she had information that he was hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia or Bosnian Croat territory. She went to the Vatican to ask for help in locating him, but told The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
that Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo
Giovanni Lajolo
Giovanni Lajolo is the Cardinal emeritus President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and emeritus President of the Governorate of Vatican City State.-Early life and ordination:...
had refused to help, telling her that the Vatican was not a state and thus had "no international obligations". Her comments infuriated the Church in Croatia as well as the Vatican, whose spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the archbishop asked Del Ponte what evidence she had to her claims, but she didn't provide any.
Foreign countries sought to track down Gotovina, and an Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
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
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
(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 one of Croatia' many intelligence services, the POA (Protuobavještajna agencija or "Counter-Intelligence Agency"). The resulting scandal led to the sacking and replacement of POA head Franjo Turek.
The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, 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
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, which gained Croatia's admission in exchange for dropping its opposition to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
's candidacy. The ICTY announced at the same time that Croatia was then "cooperating fully" with the tribunal, but did not provide further details.
Public attitude towards Gotovina
Many Croatians continue to regard Gotovina as a war hero and reject the assertion that he is guilty of crimes. 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. Both left and right-wing parties in Croatia have been accused of using Gotovina as a means of drumming up political support.During his flight, Gotovina became a prominent icon of Croatian popular culture. Marko Perković
Marko Perkovic
Marko Perković is a Croatian musician and is the lead singer of the band Thompson since 1991....
and Miroslav Škoro
Miroslav Škoro
Miroslav Škoro is a Croatian musician. Škoro's music is characterized by its traditional tamburitza sound, updated to appeal to a contemporary pop audience.-Biography:...
, 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 2006, the two most popular football teams in the country, Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb
GNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb , or by their nickname Modri are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten...
and Hajduk Split, played a game in which all proceeds went to help finance Croatian generals.
Gotovina's popularity can be explained through several reasons: most obvious, he is regarded by many as a war hero. His flight fits the ancient Croatian stereotype of an outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
, especially the hajduk
Hajduk
Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans, Central- and Eastern Europe....
- a person who defies distant and tyrannical authorities, this time embodied in The Hague, Brussels and other Western capitals whose governments demanded his arrest. There is an outlaw-celebrating culture of hajduks in Dinaric
Dinaric Alps
The Dinaric Alps or Dinarides form a mountain chain in Southern Europe, spanning areas of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro....
regions like the Dalmatian hinterland and neighbouring Croat-inhabited western Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
and, in general, in all of the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. Other Croats, regardless of their regional background, political persuasion or even attitude to wartime atrocities, praised Gotovina's flight as an act of defiance towards the Croatian political establishment.
In March 2005, a survey conducted on behalf of the U.S. Embassy in Croatia reported that 39% surveyed "completely disagree" that it is in Croatia's interest to extradite Gotovina while 15% "mostly disagree." Unofficial polls by television programs showed strong support, with over 90% of callers saying that they would prefer Gotovina to remain at large even if it meant not joining the European Union.
After Gotovina's arrest in Spain, several rallies and protests took place in Croatian cities. On December 11, 2005 (the first Sunday after his arrest), a rally organised by war veterans attracted between 40,000 and 70,000 Croatians in the city of Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
to protest the arrest. 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
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
some 500 people gathered).
Polls taken by the PULS Agency after Gotovina's arrest showed that 61% of the Croatian public saw Gotovina's arrest as bad news, while 14% saw it as good news, and the rest didn't know or have an opinion. On whether or not the accusations against the general had merit, 62% found the accusations baseless while only 17% thought they had merit, and the rest did not know. According to another opinion poll published by the left leaning newspaper Jutarnji list
Jutarnji list
Jutarnji list is a daily newspaper in Croatia with a circulation of about 115,000 copies.It was launched in April 1998, becoming the first successful Croatian daily newspaper to appear since the 1950s. It was named after a Zagreb daily that used to circulate before WW2...
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 .
In 2001 the Croatian writer Nenad Ivanković wrote a biography of Ante Gotovina titled Warrior-Adventurer and General (A Biography). The Croatian filmmaker Dejan Šorak wrote and directed Dva igrača s klupe, a black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
released in 2005 whose plot is inspired by the events surrounding the ICTY indictment against Ante Gotovina.
Capture and extradition
On December 7, 2005, Gotovina was captured by SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
police and special forces in the resort of Playa de las Américas
Playa de las Américas
Playa de las Américas is a purpose-built holiday resort in the northern part of the Municipality of Arona, close to the adjoining Municipality of Adeje in the south of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. It was built in the 1960s beside the town of Los Cristianos and stretching northward to the...
on Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
in the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
. He was said to have been traveling on two fake Croatian passports using the names, Kristijan Horvat and Stjepan Senicic. His passport contained border stamps of several countries, including Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
. A sum of money amounting to €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
12,000 was discovered in his room. He was immediately flown to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, where he was imprisoned in advance of a court hearing to extradite him to the ICTY prison at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. Spanish police were later reported to have been tracking him for several days, apparently following a lead supplied by the Croatian intelligence service, who have been tapping his wife Dunja's phone. The involvement of Croatian authorities has been backed up by the Carla's List documentary, a part of which is available on YouTube.
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 all preceded with "acting individually and/or through [his] participation in the joint criminal enterprise, planned, instigated, ordered, committed, and/or aided and abetted the planning, preparation, and/or execution of":
- 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
- MurderMurderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
- one count of a violation of the laws or customs of warLaws of warThe law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct... - 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."
Following the death of Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
(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
Mladen Naletilić
Mladen Naletilić Tuta was Croatian military commander of "Convicts' Battalion" of Croatian Defence Council and war criminal.-Biography:...
, Paško Ljubičić, Ivica Rajić
Ivica Rajic
Ivica Rajić was a commander in the Croatian Defence Council during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina....
and other Croat and Serb detainees, making the list 34 signatures long) which was published in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
's Politika
Politika
Politika is a Serbian newspaper. It is considered the newspaper of record and is the oldest daily in the Balkans, having been founded on January 25, 1904 by Vladislav Ribnikar. It is currently being published by Politika Newspapers and Magazines , a joint venture between Politika AD and...
and Večernje novosti
Vecernje novosti
Večernje novosti is a Belgrade-based daily newspaper. Founded in 1953, it quickly grew into a high-circulation daily.It first appeared on stands on October 16, 1953 edited by Slobodan Glumac who set the newspaper's tone for years to come...
newspapers. Gotovina's attorney stated he signed because of his Catholic faith which stresses forgiveness.
Trial
At the end of 2006 Gotovina's case was joined with cases against Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač as it relates to the same events (Operation Storm). The trial was expected to begin in May 2007 but was postponed indefinitely due to conflicts between lawyers on the defence bench. Gotovina's lawyers are Luka Misetic, an American attorney of Croatian descent, Greg KehoeGreg Kehoe
Gregory Brian "Greg" Kehoe was an Australian politician. He was the member for Nash in the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1953 to 1957, representing first the Australian Labor Party and then the breakaway Queensland Labor Party.-References:...
, the American lawyer who advised the prosecution in the Iraqi Special Tribunal case against Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, and Payam Akhavan
Payam Akhavan
Payam Akhavan is a Professor of International Law at McGill University. He is the co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre in New Haven, Connecticut, an organization devoted to documenting human rights violations in Iran....
, former Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICTY.
The trial began on March 11, 2008, and concluded in September 2010 with the delivery of closing arguments. Misetic said he expected a verdict in two to 10 months' time, as has been the case with the tribunal's decisions to date. On April 15, 2011, Gotovina was found guilty on 7 of the 8 counts of the indictment and sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment.
Reactions
In Croatia's capital Zagreb, thousands gathered to watch the sentence being given out live on large screens and loudly protested the decision. Croatian prime minister Jadranka KosorJadranka Kosor
Jadranka Kosor is a Croatian politician and former journalist. She is the current Prime Minister of Croatia, having taken office on July 6, 2009, following the sudden resignation of her predecessor Ivo Sanader. She is Croatia's first female Prime Minister since independence.-Early life:Jadranka...
stated that the idea of a "joint criminal enterprise" was "unacceptable" as many Croatians feel it was part of their war for independence. War veterans staged a march in the Croatian capital in protest. About 10,000 showed up to the march, chanting slogans against the Kosor-led government and the EU as protesters removed and ripped apart the European Union flag from a flagpole at the main square, replacing it with the Croatian flag.
A poll done immediately after the verdict showed that 95.4% of Croatians felt that the judgment against Gotovina was unjust, and 88% still saw him as a hero. Support for Croatia's accession to the European Union plummeted to 23.8%.
In June 2011, Ante Gotovina was ranked the second most creditable individual for the creation of the sovereign and democratic Croatia in a large poll conducted by Večernji list
Vecernji list
Večernji list is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Zagreb.The newspaper was started in the 1950s and it is today one of two largest daily newspapers in Croatia...
.
Further reading
Very short biography "Croatie: des héros encombrants", RIVAROL N° 2640 French translation of Jutarnji list's investigation- What Did the CIA Know?, Roy GutmanRoy GutmanRoy Gutman is an American journalist and author.In 1966, Gutman graduated from Haverford College with a major in History. In 1968, Gutman graduated from the London School of Economics with a masters degree in International Relations.Roy Gutman joined Newsday in January 1982 and served for eight...
, NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL, 27 August 2001 - "Amb. Prosper and the Wanted Men" Vitomir Miles Raguz, Wall Street Journal - Europe, 24 January 2003
- "Over 60 per cent [of] Croatian citizens consider Gotovina innocent", Jutarnji list (Croatia), 11 December 2005
- "War Crimes Case Revives Passions in a Torn Croatia", New York Times, 12 December 2005
- "War crimes accused says he's 'not the man'", The Scotsman, 13 December 2005
- How fair can War Crimes Tribunal be with this Prosecutor?, Jos Verhulst, The Brussels Journal, 16 December 2005
- Operation Storm Destroyed “Greater Serbia”, Brian Gallagher, Balkan Insight 20 January 2006
- "America, The Hague and Ante Gotovina: The Railroading of a Former U.S. Ally" Robin Harris, The American Spectator, March 2006