Fugitive Croatian general Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal, has been arrested in Spain.
Gotovina was indicted in July 2001 for alleged atrocities against rebel Serbs in a government offensive in August 1995 to retake rebel areas of Croatia, and has been on the run since.
Gotovina is indicted for crimes against humanity and violation of the laws or customs of war. The seven counts include persecutions, deportation and destruction of property. They say he "knew or had reason to know" of planned murders and "failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent" them.
The indictment holds him culpable for the murders of 150 Serbs by men under his command between mid-August and mid-November, and failure to punish the perpetrators. He is also held responsible for plunder.
Gotovina was indicted in 2001, six years after the war in Croatia had ended. His evasion from arrest had been a key obstacle in Croatia's attempts to join the European Union, whose leaders were for a long time sceptical over how hard the government in Zagreb was trying to track down a man many Croats see as a national hero.
Croatia has claimed all along that Gotovina, a former French Foreign Legion veteran, fled the country just before his indictment was made public in July 2001.
However, it stepped up the hunt for him after the EU delayed the start of Zagreb's membership talks in March, and ordered all police and intelligence agents to do their utmost, including liaising with foreign services. The efforts paid off and the EU opened accession talks with Zagreb in October.