GOTOVINA SEARCH SEPTEMBER UPDATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 001749

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR EUR/SCE-KABUMOTO, S/WCI-PROSPER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/29/2014
TAGS: KAWC PREL HR
SUBJECT: GOTOVINA SEARCH SEPTEMBER UPDATE

Classified By: Poloff Justin Friedman, reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)


1. (U) The ongoing GoC search for ICTY fugitive Ante Gotovina
hit the Croatian news last week with the arrest of four
persons suspected of being part of Gotovina's support network
and the retirement of Gotovina's wife, Dunja Gotovina, from
the Croatian Armed Forces. Minister of Justice Vesna
Skare-Ozbolt denied that the sensational raids on the Zagreb
and Zadar homes of Zeljko Dilber, Ante Maksan, Zeljko
Matozan, Zdenko Rincic were tied to her then upcoming visit
to The Hague. All four were released following questioning,
but Dilber and Maksan will face illegal weapons possession
charges resulting from evidence discovered during the raid.


2. (C) Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic - the GoC lead on
the search for Gotovina - told us on September 28 that the
timing of these raids was pure coincidence. The request for
search warrants on six individuals had been with the courts
for several weeks before four were issued and the raids
launched. The two remaining requests were denied by the
Sibenik court for insufficient grounds. Bajic said that a
joint police and intelligence service team was still
analyzing data from computer and paper files recovered in the
raid. However, preliminary analysis seems to indicate that
at least Dilber and Maksan had been in contact with Gotovina.
Bajic noted with satisfaction the improving coordination
between police investigators and the Croatian POA (internal
intelligence service). A working group has been formed and
is taking the lead in the investigation, freeing Bajic from
having to have a more hands-on role in directing police
activities.


3. (C) Bajic holds out more hope for focusing current
investigative efforts on Gotovina's wife, Dunja Gotovina.
For the past seven years, Mrs. Gotovina has received a Lt.
Colonel's salary from the Croatian army. Last week the GoC
announce the she will be retired from active duty by October

15. Bajic said that the investigation of Mrs. Gotovina's
financial records was ongoing, but was key to tracing Ante
Gotovina's support network. Following reports of her
traveling outside Croatia last spring, Mrs. Gotovina refused
to show her passport to investigators. Border police data do
not indicate that she left the country, but Bajic has a
search warrant request to look at her passport to try to
determine her movements.


4. (C) Bajic also said that he had followed up on information
from the ICTY (which also splashed in the media) about
Gotovina being seen in the seaside community of Brela near
Makarska. Bajic's mother lives in Brela and Bajic is a
personal friend of the owner of the restaurant in which
Gotovina was allegedly seen and photographed. In a small,
resort town with only one road (the Adriatic highway) and a
narrow sea channel for entry or exit, it would be an unlikely
stopover for Gotovina. Bajic learned that the reports seemed
to stem from an actor with a strong physical resemblence who
had made himself up to look like Gotovina as part of a
promotion for a film to be made with a Gotovina character.
FRANK


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