Serbian party urges determined action to arrest Mladic

19/12/2005

In the wake of a damning report on Belgrade's co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal, a party in Serbia's ruling coalition is urging all Serbian democratic forces to take determined action to arrest Ratko Mladic.

(Blic - 19/12/05; AP -- 16/12/05 - 18/12/05; Radio B92, ADN Kronos International - 16/12/05; International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - 15/12/05)

Ratko Mladic is still at large. [File]

The arrest of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is in Serbia's interest, a party in Serbia's ruling coalition said Sunday (18 December), warning that urgent action must be taken to capture the fugitive and avoid international isolation.

"This is the last moment for all democratic forces to assume full responsibility for the future of Serbia," the AP quoted the Serbian Renewal Party (SPO) of Serbia-Montenegrin Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic as saying in a statement. "We must send a clear message to the international community that all suspects will soon end up in The Hague."

The call followed a damning report Thursday by UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, who described Serbia's co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as having deteriorated in recent months. Addressing the Security Council, she also demanded that Serbia be held accountable for its failure to arrest Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and other war crimes fugitives.

Del Ponte's negative report sparked fears that Serbia could face international isolation and sanctions that could affect its Euro-Atlantic integration prospects and foreign investment.

Serbia-Montenegro began talks on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in October and is also aspiring for membership in NATO's Partnership for Peace programme. Both organisations have set full co-operation with the ICTY as a condition the country must meet to be eligible to join their structures.

"All the deadlines for apprehending the fugitives have been broken," Draskovic said in a written statement Friday. "We are facing the prospect of having negotiations on the EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement suspended and we dare not even think about the Partnership for Peace. Our political and moral capacities in negotiations over the future status of Kosovo have also received a blow," the minister said.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus has also warned about a possible suspension of Belgrade's SAA talks in February 2006, unless Mladic has been apprehended by that time.

"I cannot guarantee that the next round will be held unless we move forward" in co-operating with the ICTY, he told the Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti in an interview published Saturday.

According to Nenad Cenak, the leader of the League of the Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is to blame for Belgrade's failure to hand over Mladic to The Hague tribunal.

"It is not complicated to find and deliver Ratko Mladic to The Hague tribunal," Cenak said in remarks the Belgrade-based daily Blic published Monday. "He is appearing at only seven or eight locations in Serbia. The problem is in the fact that Vojislav Kostunica does not dare extradite Mladic" because it is not in his "political interest", Cenak said.

The SPO statement, however, called on Serbian politicians to "stop looking for a culprit" and take concerted action instead to apprehend Mladic.

"The responsibility stemming from the citizens' trust and their desire to live in a normal country, obliges all democratic forces ... to launch a determined action," the statement said.