A Serbian official in charge of arresting war crimes fugitives criticized on Thursday the chief U.N. prosecutor for exerting political pressure on the Balkan country to capture Ratko Mladic.

Chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz told the Dutch parliament on Wednesday that “conditioning and pressure” remain key for the arrest of Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander indicted for genocide by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

The head of Serbia’s committee in charge of cooperation with the tribunal, Rasim Ljajic, told reporters that Brammertz’s comments represent undeserved “political” pressure on the Balkan country that is hampering its bid to join the European Union.

Serbia’s membership talks with the EU have been stalled over its failure to arrest Mladic. Among the EU countries, the Netherlands has been the staunchest opponent of Serbia’s entry talks without his capture.

Mladic was indicted in 1995 for atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and the deadly hail of shells and snipers’ bullets unleashed on the city of Sarajevo during a 44-month siege by Serb forces.

“Our interest to see Mladic in The Hague is much bigger than the one of the tribunal and the Dutch parliament,” Ljajic said.

Brammertz also told the parliament that Mladic and the other most wanted fugitive, wartime Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic, are “within reach” of the Serbian authorities.

Ljajic said that this implies that the authorities know where the two are hiding, but don’t want to arrest them.

“We are conducting all activities as if they are in Serbia, but we don’t have concrete trace or location where they are hiding,” Ljajic said.

“Until they are located, arrested and extradited we won’t be drawn into the polemics on whether they are in Serbia or not,” he said.

DUSAN STOJANOVIC
October 07, 2010
Associated Press

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