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War veterans say Zagreb behaving 'cowardly' over Gotovina
Agence France Presse -- English

December 8, 2005 Thursday 2:26 PM GMT

SPLIT, Croatia - Croatian war veterans on Thursday accused the government of 'cowardly' behaviour towards former general Ante Gotovina after the war crimes fugitive was arrested in Spain.

"It is sad that the Croatian government has behaved so cowardly towards Ante Gotovina," said Zeljko Strize, the head of the local branch of Croatia's veteran's association in the southern town of Kastela.

"This government does not deserve to remain on the political scene," Strize told AFP.

The UN war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, announced earlier Thursday in Belgrade that Gotovina was arrested last night in Spain and that he would be transferred to The Hague-based court.

On Wednesday, the war veterans group put up a set of giant billboards with Gotovina's picture along with greetings for Christmas and the New Year in an area near the coastal town of Split.

"We will continue to put up billboards. Even if he is in detention, general Gotovina can send his Christmas and New Year greetings," Strize said.

Gotovina -- who led a key 1995 military operation in which Croatia regained territory from rebel Serbs, practically ending the war of independence from former Yugoslavia -- enjoys widespread popularity in the country.

The head of the far-right Croatian Party of Rights, Anto Djapic, said the war crimes fugitive's arrest was a "sad day for Croatia and veterans."

"I do not have to explain why so many war veterans and Croatians are sad today," Djapic said.

"We should not forget that Gotovina's indictment is also an indictment against the Croatian state, army and (wartime) president Franjo Tudjman," he added.

Djapic stressed he believed Gotovina would prove his innocence and the "fact that Croatian people led a war against aggression and that there were no massacres against Croatian Serbs, but a genocide against Croatians" during the war.

Gotovina had been on the run since mid-2001, when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged him with crimes committed against ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croatian war.

Croatian American Association
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