Jump to content

Ante Gotovina

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 110.174.117.185 (talk) at 10:15, 15 April 2011 (Undid revision 424176565 by 122.107.92.211 (talk)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ante Gotovina
Nickname(s)Andrija Grabovac
Allegiance France
 Croatia
Service/branchFrench Army
Military of Croatia
Years of service1970s French Foreign Legion,
1991–1995  Croatia
RankCaporal-chef in French Army
Lieutenant general (general pukovnik) of the Croatian Army
Commands heldCroatian Army Command
Battles/warsDjibouti, Kolwezi, Zaire, Ivory Coast,
Croatian War of Independence
Operation Maslenica (1993)
Operation Summer '95 (1995)
Operation Storm (1995)
Operation Mistral (1995)
AwardsRed kneza Domagoja - 26.05.1995.
Red bana Jelačića - 26.05.1995.
Red hrvatskog trolista - 20.05.1996.
Red hrvatskog križa - 20.05.1996.
Other workInmate

Ante Gotovina (born October 12, 1955) 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.[1] 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.[2] After spending four years in hiding, he was captured in the Canary Islands on December 7, 2005.[3] Ante Gotovina is regarded by a significant portion of Croatians as a hero, especially in areas affected by the war.[4] On the 15th of April 2011, Gotovina was found guilty on 7 of the 8 Charges, and Sentanced to 24 years imprisonment [5].

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 Legion 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.[6] 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.[1][7]

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.[8][9] 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.[8][9]

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.[10] Dominique Erulin claims the accusations were a political ploy made up by the left-wing factions allied with President François Mitterrand.[6] 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.[11] He was freed the next year, "in circumstances showing that he was beneficing from very particular protections".[8] 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.[12]

Gotovina's return to Croatia

In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia. 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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. Half of the Croatian Serbs who, according to the 1991 census, represented 12.16 percent of the country's population, lived there, mostly concentrated in Northern Dalmatia, the Lika, the Banovina, the Kordun along the Bosnian border, Western Slavonia around Pakrac and in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia near the border with Serbia.

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.[16] He soon caught the attention of his superiors, and when the Croatian Army was established as such in 1992, Gotovina was promoted to Colonel.[16] 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.[16]

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.[2][16] 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).[17] 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.[18]

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.[1] 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.[19]

In 2000, Nacional editor Ivo Pukanić also published a text in which he accused the Army Inspectorate officials of supplying arms to foreign terrorist groups such as the Provisional IRA and ETA [citation needed]. The accusations remain unproved, and the Croatian government never charged him.

War crimes accusation

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.[2] According to one indictment, Gotovina had both personal responsibility (individually and as a member of a joint criminal enterprise the common purpose of which was to permanently remove the Serb population) 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 150,000-200,000 Serbs[20][21] fled from the Krajina region, and at least 150 were said to have been murdered. The indictment charges Gotovina's troops with shooting, arson 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. By the indictment Ante Gotovina acting individually and/or in concert with others, including President Franjo Tudjman, planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of the deportation and forced displacement of the Krajina Serb population.

The indictments were immediately controversial – four government ministers from the Croatian Social Liberal Party resigned in protest against the government's decision to cooperate with the ICTY[22] –, and they attracted strong support from the Croatian public and war veterans associations.[23] Prominent figures, such as the tennis star Goran Ivanišević, footballers Slaven Bilić, Davor Šuker, Aljoša Asanović, Igor Štimac, and Zvonimir Boban, as well as basketball stars Dino Radja, Franjo Arapović, and Stojko Vranković joined the campaign to prevent the two men from being extradited.[24] 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 the European Union for his surrender. In September 2005, ICTY's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte claimed she had information that 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".[25] Her comments infuriated the Church in Croatia[26] 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.[27]

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")[28] 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.[29] 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.[30] 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

Within Croatia, attitudes towards Gotovina remain divided. Many Croatians continue to regard Gotovina as a war hero and reject the assertion that he is guilty of crimes.[31][32] 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.[33]

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.[34] 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.[35][36]

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.[37] 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.[38][39]

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."[39] 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.[39]

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 against the arrest.[40][41] 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).[42]

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.[43] 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.[43] 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 [citation needed].

In 2001 the Croatian writer Nenad Ivanković wrote a biography on 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.[44]

Capture and extradition

On December 7, 2005, Gotovina was captured by Spanish 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 .[45] His passport contained border stamps of several countries, including Argentina, Chile, Russia, China, Czech Republic and Tahiti.[46] A sum of money amounting to €12,000 was discovered in his room.[47] 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.[45] The involvement of Croatian authorities has been backed up by the Carla's List documentary, a part of which is available on Youtube.[48]

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":[49]

  • 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."[50] 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 [citation needed].

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.[51]

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).[2] The trial was expected to begin in May 2007 but was postponed indefinitely due to conflicts between lawyers on the defence bench.[52] Gotovina's lawyers are Luka Misetic, an American attorney of Croatian descent,[53] Greg Kehoe, the American lawyer who advised the prosecution in the Iraqi Special Tribunal case against Saddam Hussein,[54] and Payam Akhavan, former Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICTY.[55][2].

The trial began on March 11, 2008,[56] and concluded in September 2010 with the delivery of closing arguments.[57] Misetic said he expected a verdict in two to 10 months' time, as has been the case with the tribunal's decisions to date.The date has since been confirmed as April 15.[58]On the 15th of April 2011, Gotovina was found guilty of 7 the 8 Counts and sentenced to 24 Years imprisonment[59].

References

  1. ^ a b c Ivanković, Nenad. Ratnik: Pustolov i General : Jedna Biografija. Honos, 2001.
  2. ^ a b c d ICTY :: The Cases: Gotovina et al. (IT-06-90)
  3. ^ Top Croatian war crimes fugitive apprehended in Spain CNN, December 8, 2005
  4. ^ In Croatia, stalemate on fugitive. EU and UN tribunal want general's arrest The International Herald Tribune, 5 April 2005.
  5. ^ http://twitter.com/ICTYnews
  6. ^ a b Dominique Erulin interview. Slobodna Dalmacija, 25.02.2005
  7. ^ TPI : "le général croate fugitif Ante Gotovina est un citoyen français" Le Monde diplomatique. 1 March 2005.Template:Fr icon
  8. ^ a b c Le général croate Gotovina arrêté en Espagne, RFI, 8 December 2005 Template:Fr icon
  9. ^ a b Le chauffeur de l’homme de la Question, L'Humanité, 10 December 2005 Template:Fr icon
  10. ^ War Crimes Case Revives Passions in a Divided Croatia, The New York Times, December 12, 2005 Template:En icon
  11. ^ Axis Information and Analysis - Ante Gotovina: Gangster, General, National Hero... War Criminal?
  12. ^ ICTY Document IT-06-90-PT
  13. ^ Special Forces "Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts United Nations Security Council Resolution 780 (1992), Annex III.A Special forces; Under the Direction of: M. Cherif Bassiouni; S/1994/674/Add.2 (Vol. IV)". School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences (UWE). May 27, 1994. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/anx/III-A.htm#IV.B.21 Special Forces. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  14. ^ 3 The New York Times: Ex-Yugoslav Republics Are Accepted Into U.N. (May 23, 1992).
  15. ^ Serbs Refuse to Negotiate in Croatia The New York Times, August 5, 1991
  16. ^ a b c d Vojska: Ante Gotovina
  17. ^ Vojne operacije - operacija LJETO 95
  18. ^ Tanner, Marcus (1997) Croatia: A Nation Forged in War.
  19. ^ Jučer i danas - Pismo 12 generala Portal Hrvatskoga kulturnog vijeća, Jun 2007
  20. ^ Prodger, Matt (5 August 2005). "Evicted Serbs remember Storm". BBC News. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  21. ^ "Croatia marks Storm anniversary". BBC News. 5 August 2005. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  22. ^ Croatia to extradite Hague suspects
  23. ^ Croatia in Turmoil After Agreeing to Send 2 to Tribunal The New York Times, July 9, 2001
  24. ^ Ivanisevic defends war crimes suspects. BBC, 12 July, 2001
  25. ^ Vatican accused of shielding 'war criminal', The Telegraph, 20 September 2005 Template:En icon
  26. ^ Croatia: Church Officials insult war crimes prosecutor
  27. ^ UN prosecutor sparks fury with claim Vatican is hiding alleged war criminal
  28. ^ MI6 spies exposed by Balkan rivals, The Telegraph, 27 September 2004 Template:En icon
  29. ^ EU warns Croatia to help in arrest The New York Times, March 10, 2005
  30. ^ Country profile: Croatia, BBC Template:En icon
  31. ^ Croatian Suspect in War Crimes Is Arrested in Canary Isles The New York Times, December 9, 2005
  32. ^ Rally in Croatia in support of Ante Gotovina
  33. ^ Gotovina Exploited in Croatia’s Election Campaign
  34. ^ Baker, Catherine. Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War and Nationalism in Croatia. 2010
  35. ^ Croatian soccer fans against the Hague
  36. ^ NK Dinamo--HUMANITARNE AKTIVNOSTI
  37. ^ Eric Hobsbawm, Bandits (1969, revised ed. 2000, New Press ISBN 978-1-56584-619-7)
  38. ^ A Fugitive Croatia General Is a Hometown Favorite, The New York Times June 5, 2003
  39. ^ a b c In Croatia, stalemate on fugitive, The New York Times April 5, 2005
  40. ^ Bideleux, Robert & Jeffries, Ian. The Balkans: a post-communist history (2007).
  41. ^ 40,000 protest general's arrest. The New York Times, December 12, 2005.
  42. ^ Massive rally for Croatia suspect, BBC, 11 December 2005 Template:En icon
  43. ^ a b 61% građana vijest o uhićenju Gotovine smatra lošom vijesti
  44. ^ IMDb: Dejan Sorak
  45. ^ a b Croatians rally behind 'national hero' after general is snatched The Independent, 12 December 2005.
  46. ^ War crimes suspect was using a false passport The Guardian, 10 December 2005
  47. ^ War Crimes Case Revives Passions in a Divided Croatia The New York Times December 12, 2005
  48. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj0b2Qk7w5s
  49. ^ Milosevic et al. - Second Amended Indictment
  50. ^ [http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2396172005 Scotsman.com
  51. ^ OSCE Spot Report
  52. ^ Gotovina
  53. ^ Trial of Croatian Generals Begins
  54. ^ Greg W. Kehoe profile
  55. ^ Payam Akhavan Biography
  56. ^ Croatian general's war crimes trial begins at The Hague
  57. ^ Gotovina's team presents closing arguments at Hague
  58. ^ [1]
  59. ^ http://twitter.com/#!/ICTYnews

Further Reading

External links

Template:Persondata

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ante Gotovina.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ante_Gotovina&oldid=424176766"