"The Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) in Madrid, working with the Spanish National Police in the Canary Islands, played a key role in the investigation and subsequent arrest of one of the world"s most wanted war criminals, former Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina," reads a statement released on the Internet by the Interpol headquarters in Lyon.
Gotovina was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, issued for persons wanted internationally, published at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2001 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, reads the statement.
The warrant is issued after the most wanted fugitives, and although Gotovina was arrested on December 7, the warrant seems still to be in force because Gotovina's photo and personal information, a brief physical description and explanation who he is and why he is wanted, are still on the Interpol site.
The fugitive division of NCB Madrid and other Spanish police units were recently alerted that Gotovina might be in the Canary Islands. They began an investigation, taking advantage of the local police knowledge on the ground and NCB Madrid"s ready access to Interpol"s international notices and databases.
The police were able to positively identify Gotovina from the physical description in the Red Notice, although he had checked into a hotel using a passport with a different name, the statement says.
The passport Gotovina had used was a fake one produced from a batch of blanks stolen from a Croatian consulate in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. These were entered into the Interpol database of stolen travel documents in 2003.
To restrict the movement of wanted persons like Gotovina, Interpol is encouraging police authorities in member countries to expand access to the stolen travel documents database to authorised law enforcement officers at crucial locations such as border crossings and airports.
Interpol has been co-operating with the ICTY since 1995, mainly through issuing Red Notices in relation to persons wanted by the tribunal and co-ordinating such requests from other countries, the statement says.