Fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina, one of the three most wanted war crimes suspects from former Yugoslavia, was awaiting transfer to The Hague yesterday after his arrest in Tenerife.
Gotovina's arrest is a major boost for the Hague tribunal, and his detention brought calls for more efforts to catch its top fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.
Gotovina spent the night in a Madrid jail but it was not clear when he would leave for the UN court, set up to prosecute war crimes committed as Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s.
Spain's High Court on Thursday ordered his immediate transfer to The Hague, although details of how and when were not available.
Gotovina, 50, is the last wanted war crimes suspect from Croatia and his arrest will ease Zagreb's path to joining the EU.
He is charged with responsibility for the murders of at least 150 Serbs by troops under his command in the aftermath of the 1995 "Operation Storm," when Croatian forces retook parts of the country from Serb rebels.
Gotovina is also accused of pillage and destruction of their property. He has denied any wrongdoing and has been in hiding since his indictment in 2001.
Croatian officials sought immediately to portray the arrest as evidence that they had not been giving cover to Gotovina, as some critics had suggested.
"It is the final confirmation of the credibility of Croatia and its state institutions," Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told reporters in Zagreb.
Until recently, the general was so popular that posters of him, captioned "hero, not criminal," popped up all over Croatia.
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
‘ARMED CONFLICT’: At least 21 people have died in such US attacks, while experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead. An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the Pentagon chief wrote. He said the strike “was conducted in international waters just off the
RSS