Ante Gotovina
[10] In the next few years, he participated in Foreign Legion operations in Djibouti, the Battle of Kolwezi in Zaire, and missions in the Ivory Coast, becoming Colonel Erulin's driver.[12][13] In 1981, together with Dominique Erulin, he helped editor Jean-Pierre Mouchard (a close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen) organize a commando operation to free his press in La Seyne-sur-Mer, occupied by CGT trade-union strikers.[12][13] According to French police records, he became involved in criminal activities, which led to arrest warrants being issued for robbery and extortion; it has been reported that he served at least one two-year prison sentence, though this has been denied by his attorneys.[20] By 1994 he had risen to the rank of major-general and, as a general-pukovnik and commanding officer of the Split military district he organized key military operations: the defense of Livno and Tomislavgrad from the troops of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić, and the ten-month war of attrition which broke the Serb defenses in the Plain of Livno, the Dinara Ridge and the Šator mountain.[2][20] He led the conquest of Glamoč and Bosansko Grahovo (Operation Summer '95), which enabled him to close from the east the encirclement of Knin, the capital of the self-declared (1991–95) Republic of Serbian Krajina.[27] The British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was reported in Croatian media in 2004 to have been allowed to import sophisticated monitoring equipment to track down Gotovina.[28] Prior to that, a number of Croatian security officials were sacked, including POA head Franjo Turek,[29] who was replaced by Joško Podbevšek and shortly afterwards by Tomislav Karamarko.[30] The wiretapping operation went ahead after Turek's retirement in March 2004, under his successor at the POA, but failed to locate Gotovina before a deadline set by the Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader in June 2004.[29] Several EU member states, including the UK and the Netherlands, made the surrender of Gotovina a precondition for Croatia's accession to the European Union.[32] In September 2005, ICTY's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte claimed she had information that he was hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia or in Bosnian Croat territory.[34] Her comments infuriated the Church in Croatia[35] as well as the Vatican, whose spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls said the archbishop asked Del Ponte what evidence she had for her claims but which she reportedly did not provide.[36] On 7 December 2005, Gotovina was captured by Spanish police and special forces in the resort of Playa de las Américas on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.Croatian media credited Josip Buljević (subsequently the SOA's director, later president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's national security advisor[39] and since January 2016 defence minister) with being in charge of the operation to locate and arrest Gotovina.[46] In 2006, the two most popular football teams in the country, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split, played a match, whose proceeds went to help finance the generals' legal fees.[48] Unofficial polls by television programs also showed strong support, with most callers saying that they would prefer Gotovina remain at large even if it meant not joining the European Union.The Croatian filmmaker Dejan Šorak wrote and directed Two Players from the Bench (Dva igrača s klupe), a black comedy released in 2005 whose plot was inspired by the events surrounding the indictments against Gotovina.[49] Jack Baric, an Emmy Award winning Croatian-American filmmaker made Searching for a Storm, a documentary film about Gotovina's case and the war in Croatia.[2][59] After the 2006 death of Slobodan Milošević, Gotovina signed a condolence note to his family (together with Mladen Naletilić Tuta, Ivica Rajić and other Croat and Serb detainees, making the list 34 signatures long), which was published in Belgrade's Politika and Večernje novosti newspapers.[citation needed] In Zagreb, Croatia's capital, thousands gathered to watch the sentence being given out live on large screens and loudly protested the decision.[93] Ivan Šimonović, former Croatian minister of justice and current UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights, said that the verdict would have an important role in interpretation of some regulations of international criminal law.
Operation StormPR CroatiaYugoslaviaFranceCroatiaFrench ArmyCroatian Defence CouncilCroatian ArmyLieutenant General2nd Foreign Parachute RegimentCommando Parachute Group1st Guards BrigadeShaba IIBattle of KolweziYugoslav WarsCroatian War of IndependenceOperation MaslenicaOperation Winter '94Operation Summer '95Bosnian WarOperation Mistral 2Operation Southern MoveGrand Order of King Petar Krešimir IVOrder of Duke DomagojOrder of Nikola Šubić ZrinskiOrder of Ban JelačićOrder of Ante StarčevićOrder of the Croatian CrossOrder of the Croatian TrefoilOrder of the Croatian InterlaceHomeland's Gratitude MedalFrenchCroatian War for IndependenceInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslaviawar crimescrimes against humanityCanary IslandsPašmanZagrebPakoštaneFrench Foreign LegionpseudonymCommandos de Recherche et d'Action en ProfondeurPhilippe ErulinDjiboutiIvory CoastsubsidiaryService d'Action CiviqueJean-Marie Le PenLa Seyne-sur-MerrobberyextortionparamilitaryArgentinaGuatemalaColombiaCour d'assisesPresidentFrançois MitterrandInternational War Crimes TribunalCroatian National GuardSlavoniaNovskaNova Gradiškacolonelmajor-generalTomislavgradRatko MladićDinaraŠatorGlamočBosansko GrahovoRepublic of Serbian Krajina"Storm"Army of Bosnia-HerzegovinaBanja LukaTwelve Generals' LetterIvica RačanStjepan MesićMladen MarkačIvan ČermakUnited StatesEuropean UnionInterpolSecret Intelligence ServiceTomislav KaramarkoIvo SanaderNetherlandsaccession to the European UnionCarla Del PonteFranciscanThe Daily TelegraphGiovanni LajoloJoaquín Navarro-VallsSpanishPlaya de las AméricasTenerifeRussiaCzech RepublicTahitiMadridThe HaguewiretappingKolinda Grabar-Kitarovićdefence ministerjoint criminal enterpriselaws or customs of warMakarskaparliamentary electionMarko PerkovićMiroslav ŠkoroDinamo ZagrebHajduk SplitNenad IvankovićDejan ŠorakTwo Players from the Benchblack comedyTrial of Gotovina et alLuka MiseticIraqi Special TribunalSaddam HusseinPayam AkhavanSlobodan MiloševićMladen Naletilić TutaIvica RajićBelgrade