Ante Gotovina

Ante Gotovina (born October 12, 1955) is a Croat professional soldier and currently a fugitive from the International War Crimes Tribunal.

Related Topics:
October 12 - 1955 - Soldier

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Gotovina was born on the island of Pa?man near Zadar. He was a member of the French Foreign Legion, under the name of Ivan Grabovac, beginning in the early 1970s. He was affected to the 2nd regiment of parachutist, based in Calvi, Corsica. It was there he met Dominique Erulin, brother of colonel Philippe Erulin, known for his activities in Algeria. In 1978, the 2nd regiment jumped on Kolzewi, in Zaire. Gotovina was the driver of Coronel Erulin. After five years, he left the Legion, and gained French nationality in 1979.

Related Topics:
Pa?man - Zadar - French Foreign Legion - Ivan Grabovac - 1970s - Parachutist - Calvi - Corsica - Dominique Erulin - Philippe Erulin - Algeria - Kolzewi - Zaire

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Gotovina then engaged himself in various security offices, among them KO international company, which is a filial of VHP Security. This firm is known as a cover for the Service d'action civique (SAC), specialists of shady actions for the gaullist movement. KO international also assured at this time Jean-Marie Le Pen's security.

Related Topics:
KO international - VHP Security - Service d'action civique - Gaullist - Jean-Marie Le Pen

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In 1981, with his friend Dominique Erulin, he helped editor Jean-Pierre Mouchard, a close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen. The two men organised a comando to free Jean-Pierre Mouchard's press in La Seyne sur Mer, occupied by CGT strikers.

Related Topics:
Jean-Pierre Mouchard - La Seyne sur Mer - CGT

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Gotovina and Erulin then went to Latin America, where they assembled paramilitary formations, notably in Argentina and Guatemala. Both are fugitives, after having robbed in September 2001, a rich strongbox maker, Henri Salomon (probably for an amount of 2,000,000 francs). In Colombia, Gotovina met his future wife, Ximena, with whom he would have a daughter. He took another alias, Toni Moremante. Arrested when he comes back to France, he was condemned in 1986 to five years of prison. But he was freed next year, under obscure circumstances.

Related Topics:
Paramilitary - Argentina - Guatemala - Fugitives - Henri Salomon - Colombia

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Alterning between France and South America, in October 30, 1999, he took as hostage Gérald Tourmetz, who payed 350,000 francs as ransom. In 1990, Ante Gotovina returned to his native land, Croatia. When the war in Croatia began in 1991, he became a commander in the Croatian Army. He advanced from Brigadier in 1992 to Major-General in 1994. He was the commanding officer of the Split military district between 1992 and 1996; including the 1995 Operation Storm. In 1996 he became the Chief of the Croatian Army Inspectorate, but was dismissed from the active service in 2000.

Related Topics:
October 30 - 1999 - Croatia - 1991 - Commander - Brigadier - 1992 - Major-General - 1994 - Split - 1996 - 1995 - Operation Storm - Croatian Army

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Gojko Susak, the Croatian Defense minister knew about Gotovina's shady past, but ignored it in order to benefit from his evident military and tactical skills. Meanwhile, Gotovina was still a member of the Paris-based Assistance Sécurité Protection, and may have been in Paraguay and Argentina in 1990 and 1991.

Related Topics:
Gojko Susak - Assistance Sécurité Protection - Paraguay - Argentina

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Gotovina was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in May 21th 2001 for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war that the court claims troops under his command committed over the Serbs in the self-proclaimed Krajina region during and after Operation Storm, which was started on August 4, 1995 (during which the Serb-occupied territories of Croatia were restored). General Gotovina has been charged with the death of at least 150 Serbs in 1995, while forces under his command are accused of killing scores of Serbs and of having expelling up to 200,000 from the Krajina region, now part of Croatia.

Related Topics:
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia - 2001 - Serbs - Krajina - Operation Storm - August 4 - 1995

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Gotovina, however, fled and remains at large, allegedly out of reach of both Croatian authorities and the Interpol. The USA has placed a $2,800,000 bounty on his head. Rumors abound as to his present whereabouts. In September 2005, the BBC reported that he is hiding out in a Franciscan monastery somewhere in Croatia or Bosnian Croat territory. A suitcase with personal items and news clips had been found in southern Italy allegedly meant for Gotovina, but the authorities could not confirm this. Gotovina has also been linked to several organized crime groups, notably those helping one Hrvoje Petra? who is wanted for questioning on unrelated matters.

Related Topics:
Interpol - Franciscan - Italy - Organized crime - Hrvoje Petra?

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In September 2005, Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor for war crimes in the former Yougoslavia, accused the Vatican of protecting him. She said the Vatican could probably pinpoint exactly in which of Croatia's 80 Franciscan monasteries he was being sheltered "in a few days" as she told . She said: "I have information he is hiding in a Franciscan monastery and so the Catholic Church is protecting him. I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican refuses totally to co-operate with us." Her spokeswoman told that she had contacted Pope Benedict XVI in July 2005, via Vatican's "foreign minister", Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, in an effort to secure the Vatican's cooperation, but that the Pope has yet to reply to the prosecutor's request for a meeting. Giovanni Lajolo told her that the Vatican wasn't a state and thus had "no international obligations" to help the United Nations to hunt war criminals. Henceforth, in September, Carla del Ponte decided to make public her information, declaring that Gotovina was hiding in a Croatian Franciscan monastery. The Franciscans denied this information, without hiding their clear admiration for Gotovina. The Croat Minister of the Interior admitted having information on Gotovina's having been hidden in a Croatian monastery, before retracting themself, saying that further investigation showed that this was "incorrect".

Related Topics:
Carla del Ponte - Vatican - Benedict XVI - Archbishop - Giovanni Lajolo - United Nations - Franciscan

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The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and some Scandinavian states currently oppose Croat intentions to join the European Union if the Croatian Government does not fully cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal. The Croat government has declared that it does not know the current location of Gotovina and that the authorities are doing their utmost to find the General and to extradite him to the Tribunal. Accession negotiations with the EU, scheduled to start on March 17, 2005, were postponed because Gotovina was not located. Austria, has taken Croatia's side.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Netherlands - European Union - Croatian Government - International Criminal Tribunal - March 17 - 2005

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Effectively, in February 2005, general's allies inside Croat intelligence outed several war crimes investigators in Croatia as serving MI6 and USA intelligence officers, as reported by the Daily Telegraph on September 29, 2004. A few months before, in August 2004, SIS station chief Anthony Monckton was forced to leave his post in Serbia after a campaign against him led by that country's DB intelligence agency, where his work investigating the 2003 assassination of reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic won him few friends. In February 2004, Zoran Mijatovic, former #2 in the Serb DB, published a book including Monckton's name and picture. The SIS (UK's secret intelligence services) efforts were determined to capture Slobodan Milosevic, and it is now involved in the hunt for Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Ante Gotovina.

Related Topics:
MI6 - September 29 - 2004 - SIS - Anthony Monckton - DB - Zoran Djindjic - Zoran Mijatovic - Slobodan Milosevic - Radovan Karadzic - Ratko Mladic - Ante Gotovina

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Franjo Turek was ousted as the head of the POA after resisting SIS demands for increased access to information about Ante Gotovina's whereabouts. Croatia's Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, replaced Franjo Turek with Josko Podbevsek.

Related Topics:
Franjo Turek - POA - Ivo Sanader - Josko Podbevsek

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The next month (March 2005), Britain led a successful campaign to halt the planned opening of talks with Croatia on joining the European Union, which were to start on March 17, 2005. President Stjepan Mesi? declared that Croat entry to the EU cannot be delayed indefinitely because of Gotovina, because if he were one day found in Patagonia, the injustice and the irrepairable damage to the Croat reputation and economy would already have been done. Mesi? did point out that if the Croatian government had any clues whether Gotovina is in Patagonia or anywhere else, that it was its duty to promptly submit that info to the ICTY investigators.

Related Topics:
European Union - March 17 - 2005 - Stjepan Mesi? - Patagonia

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