Poll: Majority of Serbs Against Mladic Arrest

About 64 per cent of Serbian nationals oppose the arrest of war crime fugitive Ratko Mladic, according to the latest poll.

The survey was conducted by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Belgrade Center for Human Rights, on a sample of 1,400 respondents in between April and June of this year.

Twenty five per cent of the respondents reportedly support the arrest and extradition of Mladic, while 11 per cent have no stance on the issue.

Fifty six per cent of the respondents believe that Mladic is not guilty of the crimes he has been indicted of by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, while 22 per cent believe he is guilty, and the same percentage do not know.

Presenting the survey results, the Director of the Belgrade Human Rights Center Vojin Dimitrijevic said support for the former Bosnian Serb military leader is a case to be tackled by social psychologists since it represents an “inborn resistance against someone belonging to your nation being found guilty.”

He blamed it on state television and "years of indoctrination", on the government, the Tribunal and its prosecution and also on the international community and EU as they sometimes make decisions that are not entirely intelligible, as he put it.

In the case of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who is a Hague detainee, 55 per cent of those questioned believe that he is not guilty, and 62 per cent were against his extradition to the ICTY in July 2008.

According to the survey, 72 per cent have a negative opinion of the ICTY while 14 per cent have a positive stance towards the Court.

When asked whether Serbian courts are capable of handling war crime cases, 66 per cent gave a positive answer, while 25 per cent believe they are not.