Hell No, He Won’t Go

Not all old soldiers simply fade away. Janko Bobetko, 83 and ailing, had been keeping a low profile in Zagreb, intent on living out his days in the quiet comfort of the villa he shares with Magdalena, his wife of 57 years. That was before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia banged hard on Bobetko’s door in the Croatian capital’s tranquil Tuskanac neighborhood — and demanded to see him in the Hague.

The tribunal’s five-count indictment, unsealed on Sept. 20, charges Bobetko, the Croatian army’s former Chief of Staff, with “crimes against humanity” and “violations of the laws or customs of war” during the conflict in the autonomous Serbian region of Krajina in 1993. Bobetko vows that he will never be tried by the international body. The old soldier — afflicted with heart disease, diabetes and walking difficulties — declared: “They can carry me out of my house only when I am dead. Not wounded. Dead.”

The indictment has roused a sleepy Croatian nationalism, opening the door to a legal clash between Croatia — which is challenging the indictment and refusing (so far) to hand over Bobetko — and the U.N. war-crimes court. A second front has opened, too, along domestic political lines. Prime Minister Ivica Racan’s weak center-left coalition faces a population that largely regards Bobetko as a titan of Croatia’s three-and-a-half-year independence war with Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslavia. “Bobetko is a national hero,” says one Zagreb man, reflecting the view of up to 80% of the population.

Sending Bobetko to the Hague would be political suicide for Racan. Given the overwhelming support for Bobetko, cooperating with the prosecutors would doom his coalition, if not immediately then at the next election, due late next year. But not cooperating has its own risks. If a showdown with the U.N. were to occur, any sanctions imposed against Croatia would be cited by Racan’s political opponents as proof that his government does not enjoy the support of the international community. That very support — and some success in foreign affairs, such as closer ties to the European Union and NATO — are seen as the government’s only real achievements.

For now, Racan plays for time, expressing support for the tribunal while asking the country’s Constitutional Court to evaluate the indictment. A ruling could take weeks. At the Foreign Affairs Ministry, meanwhile, one high-ranking official said: “Our main task is to petition our friends in Europe and the world so that Croatia is not sanctioned.”

For the tribunal, however, the matter is simple. “Croatian authorities have a responsibility to arrest Bobetko without delay and transfer him to the Hague,” says spokesman Jim Landale. Prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann says “there is nothing to negotiate,” as “no government can challenge or reject or reverse an indictment that’s been confirmed.”

Something deeper worries Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s international justice program. “Some in Zagreb,” he fears, “draw comfort from the Bush Administration’s objections to an International Criminal Court” and enjoy seeing “the world’s only superpower going on a jihad against international justice.”

Ironically, the Bobetko dispute comes as Croatia’s President, Stipe Mesic, prepares to take the witness stand in the Hague. One of 177 witnesses whom prosecutors plan to call in the newest phase of Milosevic’s war-crimes trial — dealing with “ethnic cleansing” in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina — he is due to testify on Oct. 1.

The accusations against Bobetko stem from a nine-day Croatian military operation in rural Krajina’s “Medak pocket.” From Sept. 9 to 17, 1993, according to the indictment, Croatian forces attacked and plundered Serb villages, unlawfully killing at least 100 Serbs while others were shot, stabbed, mutilated and otherwise inhumanely treated. As the army’s most senior commander, Bobetko “played a central role” in the operation, the indictment says, while also having responsibility for preventing and punishing breaches of military discipline and humanitarian law.

“I had hoped that all my battles were behind me,” says Bobetko, lamenting that, at his advanced age, “I am again destined to start a new battle — probably my last one — in which I am to fight against yet another aggression toward Croatia.” But the prosecution team in the Hague says, Tell it to the judges.