Croatia's top war crimes fugitive was jailed in Madrid on Thursday, reports said, following his capture at a luxury resort on the Canary Islands after four years on the run.
&to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/2003/01/04/41625.html' target=_blank>Ante Gotovina, 50, was arrested without incident while dining at a hotel restaurant on the island of Tenerife on Wednesday night, Spain's Interior Ministry said.
He was flown to Madrid on Thursday and ordered held overnight in a high-security prison north of Madrid, the Efe news agency said. He was expected to be turned over the &to=http://english.pravda.ru/yougoslavia/2001/08/30/13822.html' target=_blank>U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Friday, reports said.
Gotovina, a retired Croatian army general, was indicted by the tribunal in connection with the killings of at least 150 Serbs by troops under his command and for the expulsion of about 150,000 others during Croatia's 1991-95 war.
Croatia's failure to track down Gotovina _ on the run since his 2001 indictment _ had been a key obstacle to his country's bid to start membership talks with the European Union. Croatia insisted it was not sheltering Gotovina, and the EU decided in October to move ahead with membership talks.
On Wednesday night, elite Spanish police seized Gotovina as he dined at the Hotel Bitacora in the Playa de las Americas resort, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. He had traveled to the island in the Atlantic off the African coast on a fake Croatian passport under the name Kristian Horvat, the ministry said.
Gotovina was taken to Madrid's high court late Thursday, accompanied by a lawyer and a Croatian consular official.
Judge Felix Degayon ordered Gotovina held overnight before he is turned over to the U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands, Efe said. Gotovina was taken straight to Soto el Real prison, the report said.
"The arrest of Ante Gotovina is very good news," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said from Brussels, Belgium. "For reconciliation in the region ... it is fundamentally important that all indictees are brought to justice."
His capture also put pressure on Serbia to come up with two other top fugitives from the Balkans wars: wartime Bosnian Serb army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
"I'm now expecting Mladic and Karadzic," U.N. chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said in Belgrade after announcing Gotovina's arrest.
Mladic and Karadzic are believed to be hiding in Serbia or in the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia.
The two men were charged by the tribunal with orchestrating the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim boys and men from Srebrenica _ Europe's worst carnage since World War II _ and for laying a three-year siege to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
Del Ponte was preparing a report to the U.N. Security Council on Belgrade's cooperation with the tribunal.
"I'm very disappointed by the non-arrest of the fugitives, particularly Mladic," she said Thursday.
"I'm sure the institutions are doing something to arrest Mladic, but for sure they are not doing enough," she said. "We expect more activity because we are sure we can find Mladic."
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Serbian authorities would have the men in custody soon. He promised "a short-term resolution of the remaining cases."
If the Security Council rules later this month that Serbia is not cooperating with the tribunal, the troubled Balkan country could face renewed political and economic sanctions and isolation, reports AP.
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