Croatian police today stormed the houses of alleged friends of the UN war crimes tribunal's third-most wanted indicted fugitive.
Police searched the homes of three people said to be linked to General Ante Gotovina, who has been on the run since he was indicted in July 2001 for atrocities his troops committed in the final Croatian government offensive against rebel Serbs in August 1995.
"As part of searching for General Ante Gotovina, police in Zagreb and Zadar are investigating three persons," said an Interior Ministry statement, adding that police suspect the three of helping Gotovina.
Officers searched their houses, offices and cars and found an unspecified amount of undeclared firearms, the statement said.
Police and the state prosecutor will decide on pressing charges after the inquiry is completed, it added. The statement did not name the three.
Croatia hopes to start EU membership talks next year and is keen to show it is doing its utmost to find the general. The tribunal's two most wanted men are Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, both thought to be hiding in Bosnia or Serbia.