Yugoslav army protecting genocide general - claim
The UN chief war crimes prosecutor has accused the Yugoslav government of harbouring the Bosnian Serbs’ wartime commander who has been indicted for genocide.
Carla del Ponte said General Ratko Mladic was living in Belgrade and the Yugoslav army was shielding him from both national and international justice with the government’s consent.
She said the tribunal knows ‘‘an address of Mladic in Belgrade.’’
She also accused authorities in Republika Srbska, the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia, of knowing the whereabouts of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic.
More than six years after the war in Bosnia, at a time when massive resources are being devoted to catch the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on the United States, ‘‘I think that the victims and survivors of the Bosnian conflict deserve that a real effort be made towards the arrest of Karadzic and Mladic,’’ she said.
Yugoslavia’s Interior Minister, Zoran Zivkovic, rejected del Ponte’s allegations that the government is harbouring and protecting Mladic.
‘‘I have no knowledge that he is in our territory,’’ said Zivkovic. He also said that has been no document or decision by the authorities to protect any of the war crimes suspects.
In an address to the UN Security Council, del Ponte said the continuing freedom of Bosnia’s two top war crimes suspects ‘‘is an affront to the authority of this council and mocks the entire process of international criminal justice.’’
She urged the international community to put pressure on Yugoslavia to hand over Mladic and on the Republika Srbska and Nato to arrest Karadzic.
Del Ponte said Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica says the country needs a law to cooperate with the tribunal, but is not moving to adopt one. ‘‘So much for Yugoslavia’s commitment to justice and reconciliation,’’ she said dismissively.
Both Karadzic and Mladic have been hiding since 1996 when they were indicted for genocide committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
The UN prosecutor praised authorities in the Serbian republic - one of two republics comprising Yugoslavia - for transferring former President Slobodan Milosevic to the tribunal for prosecution.
