Archives for March 16th, 2005

Ante Gotovina: The invisible man. (Photo: U.S. State Dept.)

Things are heating up in Croatia, and it has nothing to do with spring. The EU has decided to delay membership negotiations with Slovenia’s southern neighbors because of their refusal to give up renegade general Ante Gotovina. Croatia now has the distinction of being the first country to have EU membership talks delayed because of "human-rights issues."

Some background: in 1995, Gotovina led the Croatian army on a four-month-long rampage through the Krajina region, in an offensive known as Operation Oluja ("Storm"). It resulted in the killing and displacing of Serbs there, for which The Hague has requested the pleasure of his company. Specifically, they want him on charges of "crimes against humanity" and "violations of the laws and customs of war." (You can read the ICTY’s complete indictment of Gotovina here.) Croatian nationalists, on the other hand, wonder why they should sacrifice their heroj to satisfy Europe’s belated interest in bringing justice to the Balkans.

It’s a sticky situation for the current Croatian government to be in — made markedly worse by the fact that some opinion polls show a majority of Croatians would rather live with Gotovina than live in the EU(!). And to make things even more difficult, the invisible general appears to have a strong support network within the government itself. It’s hardly surprising that he’s been General Freebird for the past four years.

What’s clear is this: it’s now time for Gotovina to go-go — like Ramush Haradinaj of Kosovo and Drago Nikolic of Bosnia. And here’s why:

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