Radovan Karadzic, Sarajevo is not your city, and you have no right to say that it is, just as you do not have the right to say in public, even if it’s in court, that someone has dug up bones around Bosnia and brought them to Srebrenica to make a fake graveyard. This is insulting.
Verhagen: Decision on Serbia's SAA in June
Belgrade | 15 December 2009 | Bojana Barlovac
In an interview with broadcaster B92, Verhagen said that the decision will be based on a report by the Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor Serge Brammertz.
Presenting his progress report earlier in December on Serbia's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, to the UN Security Council Brammertz said that Serbia has made "constant progress" in efforts to finalise cooperation with The Hague-based Tribunal, but the arrest of war crimes fugitives Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic remains the key issue.
EU foreign ministes agreed on 7 November to unblock Serbia's interim trade agreement which is part of the SAA. The decision came after the Netherlands lifted its opposition to closer EU ties. The Dutch government had been blocking an interim trade deal, demanding that Serbia first arrests two remaining indictees still at large: Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.
In order for the Netherlands to decide to unblock the entire SAA, Verhagen reiterated for B92 that the report must contain elements which confirm that Serbia really is doing everything to bring the fugitives before the court. The SAA is the formal precondition for Serbia to apply for EU candidacy membership.
In case Mladic gets arrested, the agreement will be immediately unblocked, the foreign minister said.
According to the Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs website, Verhagen is scheduled to pay an official visit to Belgrade on Wednesday where he will meet his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic and the country's President Boris Tadic.
