Official: Serbia making every effort to arrest Mladic
Serbia has until the end of the month to capture fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, or it could face European Union sanctions, the foreign minister said today.
Seeking to keep up the pressure, the EU renewed threats to freeze negotiations on the Balkan country’s possible membership in the bloc unless the Bosnian Serb wartime commander was delivered to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
“We have until February 27 to fulfil our remaining obligations toward the tribunal,” Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said.
He was referring to the date when EU foreign ministers will decide whether to suspend negotiations designed to draw Serbia closer to the 25-nation bloc and prepare it for eventual membership – a key goal of the Serbian government.
Contradictory statements from officials in Belgrade have generated confusion about how close authorities are to reaching the former Bosnian Serb general, with security officials insisting yesterday that negotiations were under way for his surrender and the government issuing denials.
A government official, responding to the new warnings from the EU, offered more assurances that every effort was being made to capture Mladic.
“We are doing all we can to fulfil this obligation regardless of the pressure and additional deadlines,” said Rasim Ljajic, the head of the Serbian agency in charge of co-operation with the UN tribunal.
Draskovic and Ljajic did not specify what action was being taken to arrest Mladic, who has been indicted on genocide charges for allegedly orchestrating the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in the UN enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, Europe’s worst carnage since the Second World War and the worst crime of Bosnia’s 1992-to-1995 war.
The EU’s new warning to Belgrade came from the official leading efforts to bring new member nations into the bloc.
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, speaking from EU headquarters in Brussels, said entry talks with Belgrade would be frozen if Serbia does not fully co-operate with the tribunal’s hunt for Mladic.
“If Serbia does not co-operate it cannot avoid … disruption of negotiations,” Rehn told a committee of the European Parliament.
“It is important Serbia’s effort leads to full co-operation without delay,” he said.
“It should lead to the arrest and transfer of Mladic.”
Meanwhile, Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Aleksandar Vucic urged Mladic not to surrender to The Hague.
“The Serb generals cannot be a part of some market trade,” said Vucic, who is leading the largest party in Serbia’s parliament.
“That is our message to Mladic, if he can hear us.”
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive office, has not fixed a deadline, but the next round of so-called “stabilisation and association” talks with the EU are scheduled for April.
