NETHERLANDS: United Nations' war crimes tribunal finds former Croatian army general Ante Gotovina guilty of orchestrating campaign of murder and sentences him to 24 years in prison

Record ID: 788456

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: United Nations' war crimes tribunal finds former Croatian army general Ante Gotovina guilty of orchestrating campaign of murder and sentences him to 24 years in prison
  • Date: 16th April 2011
  • Summary: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (APRIL 15, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA PEOPLE ENTERING TRIBUNAL SIGN FOR "INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA"
  • Embargoed: 1st May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands, Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA8KLR6O86MTVK1TF4NC779M36N
  • Story Text: A U.N. war crimes tribunal found a former Croatian army general guilty of orchestrating a campaign of murder and plunder to drive around 200,000 Serbs from a rebel enclave, sentencing him to 24 years in prison on Friday (April 15).
    Ante Gotovina, 55, was made a hero in his homeland for his top role in a 1995 four-day blitz by Croatia to recapture Krajina region and his arrest triggered protests in Croatia. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
    "For having committed these crimes, the chamber sentences you, Mr. Gotovina, to a single sentence of 24 years of imprisonment," presiding judge Alphons Orie said.
    After Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Serbs drove out around 80,000 Croats in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" during the 1991-1995 in Croatia war before proclaiming their own Serb Republic within Croatia.
    Gotovina and his fellow general Mladen Markac were found guilty of orchestrating the killing of dozens of people and the shelling of towns and villages as Croat forces retook the Serb-controlled Krajina region in 1995.
    Gotovina's defence lawyer Greg Kehoe was angry and disappointed.
    "The Gotovina defence put forth a very strong defence that general Gotovina acted in accordance with military law and military tactics and we will take that and we will examine this judgement and we will appeal, we will be successful. This decision runs directly counter the facts presented in the courtroom and the law of this court."
    Markac got 18 years of imprisonment, while the third accused, also a former Croatian general Ivan Cermak has been acquitted and will be released by tomorrow, according to the Tribunal's spokeswoman Nerma Jelavic.
    Besides the current case, the conflict also led to the conviction of high-ranking Serb officials at The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
    Gotovina's arrest in Spain's Canary Isles in 2005, released Croatia's path to the European Union which insists that all Balkan states must deal with their 1990s wartime past and arrest war crimes suspects before joining the bloc.
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