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 crime suspects, former Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina.

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. He is accused of killing more than 150 Serbian civilians during a Croatian offensive to expel rebel forces from the country in 1995, among other offences.

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 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.

The national police in the Canary Islands, accompanied by officers from NCB Madrid, arrested Gotovina at a hotel on 7 December. He was taken to Madrid to appear before a federal judge, who authorised his immediate handover to the ICTY.

The passport allegedly used by Gotovina contained stamps indicating the bearer had travelled extensively in the months after it was stolen in 1999. It indicated border entries in Argentina, Peru, Chile, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Tahiti, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Slovenia and Spain.

'This case is another perfect example of how much and how often stolen passport are used by criminal suspects and terrorist suspects all over the world,' said INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services, Jean Michel Louboutin.

'It is also a perfect example of why we are urging our member countries, as an urgent priority, to contribute to the INTERPOL stolen travel documents database and to extend access to border control points and airports, so officers can use it to stop people using false travel documents before they enter with the potential to do serious harm.'

INTERPOL’s global stolen travel documents database has grown from a few thousand entries just three years ago to almost 9 million today. The stolen passport alleged to have been used by Gotovina had been entered into the INTERPOL database in April 2003.

Use of the INTERPOL stolen travel documents database has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, the G-8, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation and the International Civil Aviation Organization and, most recently, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

These international bodies all clearly recognize that both a global database and a global strategy are needed to prevent terrorists from crossing borders illegally.

'What is needed now is the political and bureaucratic will in all countries to take steps to ensure that police in the field and border control officers at entry points have the tools they need to use this database effectively to stop terrorists and criminals before they have the opportunity to carry out illegal acts,' Mr. Louboutin said.

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.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1503 calls on all UN member countries to co-operate with INTERPOL in apprehending and transferring persons indicted by the ICTY and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.