Chris Stephen: General with an eye for the ladies and a criminal past

HERO or villain? Sadly, in what was effectively a civil war, General Ante Gotovina was both.

Gotovina joined the Croatian army after a life as a soldier adventurer; he ran away from home aged 16 to become a merchant seaman, then joined the French Foreign Legion under an assumed name.

In the Legion, one of the toughest units in the world, he distinguished himself both for his bravery and his love of women. France rewarded his exemplary service in Chad and South America with French citizenship in the 1980s. But he was subsequently jailed for extortion by a French court.

He arrived in Croatia in 1991 shortly after it broke away from its Yugoslav mother state and enjoyed rapid promotions as one of the few experienced military officers the fledging state could call on in its war with the Serbs.

The two countries have long traded accusations that the opposing forces were responsible for atrocities. In 1999, Zagreb filed a genocide case against Serbia at the International Court of Justice, the UN legal forum for disputes among states. Belgrade filed a counter-claim alleging genocide by Croatia during Operation Storm.

Interestingly, yesterday's ruling, which runs to over 1,000 pages, also passed posthumous judgment on Croatia's wartime president, Franjo Tudjman, who received active American support in his struggle against Serbia and its president, Slobodan Milosevic. The verdict called Tudjman the ringleader of a criminal enterprise to ethnically cleanse the Krajina border region. Despite the anger of Croatia's current leadership about Gotovina's conviction, any rhetoric will be tempered by Croatia's over-riding ambition - to join the EU.