The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Mladic Behind Bars 'by Late August'
| 07 August 2008 |
A source from the Serbian government told the newspaper that Belgrade would try to arrest Mladic this month, since the West was insisting on his extradition as a key condition for Serbia’s European integration.
The source said that due to that effort, members of the team in charge of locating and apprehending Mladic had postponed their summer vacations for an unspecified period.
Mladic and the Croatian Serb wartime leader, Goran Hadzic, are the only two remaining Serbian war crimes fugitives sought by the the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY, based in The Hague.
Last month, Belgrade detained the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, Radovan Karadzic, and later transferred him to The Hague. Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/12153
The ICTY twice indicted Karadzic and Mladic for genocide in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, while Hadzic is charged with war crimes committed by local Serbs in the war in Croatia.
Karadzic's arrest was hailed by the West as a significant development, but Europe and the US have nevertheless continued to demand that Serbia complete the process of cooperation with the ICTY by apprehending the remaining two fugitives.
Serbia’s Special Prosecutor for war crimes, Vladimir Vukcevic, confirmed that the arrest of Mladic and Hadzic was Belgrade’s priority. He told the Belgrade weekly Vreme that Serbia could not count itself a legal or civilised state “unless we morally purify ourselves by arresting those accused of the gravest violation of humanitarian laws”.
Speaking ahead of a visit to Belgrade by The Hague Tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, tentatively scheduled for the end of the month, Vukcevic added that it was time for the tribunal to “clearly support Serbia with a positive report on its cooperation” with the ICTY.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, two Serbian government ministers urged Mladic and Hadzic to voluntarily surrender in their own interests and that of the country. Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/12265
