They'll be coming for you soon, Agathon...
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Another war criminal cornered and caged. Will Agathon be next?
In Burundi, the United Nations illegally supplies war criminals with UN disguises. In Europe, it hunts them down and prosecutes them. Time for Carolyn MacAskie to take a few lessons from her colleague Carla del Ponte?
From BBC News
A Croatian general charged with war crimes has been held in Spain, the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor has said.
Ante Gotovina - the third most-wanted suspect from the 1990s Balkan wars - was arrested on Wednesday night in the Canary Islands, said Carla Del Ponte.
Gen Gotovina, 50, is accused over the death of about 150 Serb civilians during a Croatian offensive in 1995.
The Croatian government's failure to arrest him had hampered the country's entry talks with the European Union.
Ms Del Ponte said she hoped efforts would now be stepped up to arrest the top two men on the tribunal's most-wanted list.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic remain at large.
Stabbed, shot, burned
Ms Del Ponte announced Gen Gotovina's arrest during a visit in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
She said the retired general was due to be transferred to The Hague.
He was held in a hotel in the Tenerife resort of Playa de las Americas after being followed for several days, the Spanish news agency Efe reported.
The retired general was said to be in possession of a false Croatian passport with an assumed name, said Efe quoting the Spanish interior ministry.
He was indicted for crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal in 2001.
He is alleged to have failed to prevent the murder of 150 Serbs killed by shooting, stabbing or burning during Operation Storm, the August 1995 push against Serb forces in Croatia's Krajina region.
The indictment also accuses him of co-ordinating a campaign of plunder and looting throughout operations in ethnically Serb areas of the region.
'Good news'
Throughout the tribunal's efforts to track him down, Gen Gotovina, has maintained support from a wide section of the Croatian public, some of whom regard him as a national hero.
Until recently, posters with his picture captioned "hero, not criminal" had been sighted around Croatia.
He was sent into early retirement in 2000 when Croatia promised to investigate allegations of war crimes among its military during the 1990s.
Croatia had claimed that he subsequently fled the country. He vowed never to turn himself in.
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he had been notified of Gen Gotovina's capture by Ms Del Ponte on Thursday morning.
"I would like to say that those who believed us when we said that Gotovina was not in Croatia have today received the final and complete confirmation," he said.
In Brussels, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described the arrest of Gen Gotovina as "good news for the world, for bringing people to justice who are not yet convicted but are accused of very serious crimes".
Serbian President Boris Tadic congratulated Croatia on Gotovina's arrest.
"We have to solve the problems of Ratko Mladic and the others," he said. "But we have to do that in all the countries in the region."
But Belgrade reiterated that it had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the two Serb fugitives.
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Burundi, human rights, Current Affairs, Politics, Africa
Another war criminal cornered and caged. Will Agathon be next?
In Burundi, the United Nations illegally supplies war criminals with UN disguises. In Europe, it hunts them down and prosecutes them. Time for Carolyn MacAskie to take a few lessons from her colleague Carla del Ponte?
From BBC News
A Croatian general charged with war crimes has been held in Spain, the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor has said.
Ante Gotovina - the third most-wanted suspect from the 1990s Balkan wars - was arrested on Wednesday night in the Canary Islands, said Carla Del Ponte.
Gen Gotovina, 50, is accused over the death of about 150 Serb civilians during a Croatian offensive in 1995.
The Croatian government's failure to arrest him had hampered the country's entry talks with the European Union.
Ms Del Ponte said she hoped efforts would now be stepped up to arrest the top two men on the tribunal's most-wanted list.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic remain at large.
Stabbed, shot, burned
Ms Del Ponte announced Gen Gotovina's arrest during a visit in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
She said the retired general was due to be transferred to The Hague.
He was held in a hotel in the Tenerife resort of Playa de las Americas after being followed for several days, the Spanish news agency Efe reported.
The retired general was said to be in possession of a false Croatian passport with an assumed name, said Efe quoting the Spanish interior ministry.
He was indicted for crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal in 2001.
He is alleged to have failed to prevent the murder of 150 Serbs killed by shooting, stabbing or burning during Operation Storm, the August 1995 push against Serb forces in Croatia's Krajina region.
The indictment also accuses him of co-ordinating a campaign of plunder and looting throughout operations in ethnically Serb areas of the region.
'Good news'
Throughout the tribunal's efforts to track him down, Gen Gotovina, has maintained support from a wide section of the Croatian public, some of whom regard him as a national hero.
Until recently, posters with his picture captioned "hero, not criminal" had been sighted around Croatia.
He was sent into early retirement in 2000 when Croatia promised to investigate allegations of war crimes among its military during the 1990s.
Croatia had claimed that he subsequently fled the country. He vowed never to turn himself in.
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he had been notified of Gen Gotovina's capture by Ms Del Ponte on Thursday morning.
"I would like to say that those who believed us when we said that Gotovina was not in Croatia have today received the final and complete confirmation," he said.
In Brussels, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described the arrest of Gen Gotovina as "good news for the world, for bringing people to justice who are not yet convicted but are accused of very serious crimes".
Serbian President Boris Tadic congratulated Croatia on Gotovina's arrest.
"We have to solve the problems of Ratko Mladic and the others," he said. "But we have to do that in all the countries in the region."
But Belgrade reiterated that it had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the two Serb fugitives.
Take action - Fax your MP!
Take action - sign the Gatumba petition
Burundi, human rights, Current Affairs, Politics, Africa
posted by R | 11:21 AM
1 Comments:
Yes I would like to say that General Ante Gotovina is first off not a war criminal. So get your facts straight and stop listening to wikipedia.org because they dish out bullshit all the time. Second of all the man is being accused of charges of which he is innocent of and this is also known by the United States. They have a video tape and documents proving his innocence. So please kindly pick a person that committed war crimes. I'll give you one to help you ok but please take off General Gotovina ok. Here is the name Ratko Mladic. He killed 500,000 yes that's 500,000 people in the town of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Hercegovina during the Balkan war in the 1990's. This was done in matter of a day or so. So there is your war criminal on the run. And please take off Gotovina he is innocent so their is n point of having that up. And you really said some offensive things too. Thank You and you should have an easy time on Mladic.
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