BRUSSELS, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina was seized Wedmesday by police in
Tenerife, 10 years after allegedly committing serious war crimes against Serb
civilians.
The former French legionnaire was indicted by the United Nations in 2001
for arranging the killing of at least 150 Serb civilians. He also stands
accused of deporting 150,000 Serbs in a 1995 government-approved operation to recapture the Krajina region held by Serb rebels.
His capture was warmly welcomed in Brussels where Zagreb's failure to arrest Gotovina was considered an obstacle to Croatia joining both NATO and the European Union. "This is good news for the world, for bringing people to justice who are not yet convicted but are accused of very serious crimes," said NATO secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Thursday, adding that it was also good news for alliance candidate Croatia.
Gen. Gotovina, who retired from the army in 2000, appeared before a Spanish judge in Madrid Thursday. He can expect to be extradited to the International Court of Justice for Yugoslavia shortly.
Gotovina was the Hague tribunal's third most-wanted man after the two
Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who are still at large.
