Monday, February 27, 2006

EU gives Serbia a month to deliver Mladic

ark John and Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union told Serbia on Monday it had a month to deliver war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to justice or risk seeing its long-term bid to join the bloc put on ice.

One of the top two war crimes suspects in the Balkans, Mladic has been a wanted man since 1995 and is said to have enjoyed high-level protection from renegade members of the military and intelligence services in Serbia.

"It is high time Serbia reached full cooperation with ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) that should lead to the arrest and transfer of Ratko Mladic," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference.

"That is the way to avoid a disruption of negotiations, to avoid them being put on hold," Rehn said, noting complaints from ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Serbia's cooperation with her tribunal had been deteriorating over the past year.

Diplomats said a final statement by foreign ministers warned only that talks risked being "disrupted" rather than suspended so as not to encourage anti-EU figures in Belgrade who wanted just that outcome.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters the 25-nation EU would adopt a "go-slow" approach to future contacts with Belgrade, which could start with the cancellation of a next round of talks due on April 4-5.

"If Serbia continues to fail to cooperate, then it risks a total suspension of the talks," Straw said.

Del Ponte thanked the EU for sending what her spokeswoman called a clear message to Serbia: "If Mladic is not arrested Belgrade will have to face the consequences: the negotiations scheduled on April 5 will not take place, which means clearly that they will be suspended."

DELIVERABLE

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, in Brussels to meet his EU counterparts, was optimistic Mladic could be delivered.

"No explanations, no excuses for the fact that we are dramatically late in fulfilling our Hague obligations...I hope that we'll do that this time," he said, insisting nonetheless that his government did not know where Mladic was.

Indicted by the United Nations in 1995 for genocide in the massacre that year of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica and the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo, Mladic went underground only in 2001.

Responding to a week of rampant media speculation that Mladic was under arrest or about to surrender, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said last week that the former Bosnian Serb army chief was still at-large but insisted that Serbia was "doing everything in its power" to bring him to justice.

The current talks between the EU and Serbia are the first rung on the ladder to eventual membership for Belgrade -- something which is far from certain given the cold feet about future waves of enlargement in many EU capitals.

The EU will in coming weeks increase pressure on Belgrade, with Draskovic due to meet his EU counterparts later on Monday and again in mid-March.

Del Ponte has urged the EU to suspend its discussions with Belgrade, saying that similar hardline tactics worked with Croatia. The arrest of leading war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina in December cleared the path for its EU accession talks after months of warnings and pressure.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my god, Serbs are on fire. If they deliver Mlladic, they are going to open the gates of hell.

Anonymous said...

"EU gives Serbia a month to deliver Mladic"

EU if it was a powerful Union it would sanction anything Serbian, and not let it join. They just keep on pushing the deadline. Just shut down SlavicSluts chance for another 20 years, you will see, they will release him ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Even if they deliver him, the army and all the radicals are going to start a civil war. Serbia is in trouble both ways.

WARchild said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
WARchild said...

Another Serb criminal is in the can. Gangster/criminal/serb intelligence assassinator that killed several serbs and Albanian human rights activist Enver Hadri in Bruxelless in 1990 was arrested yesterday at Barcelona's airport. He'll be extradited to Belgium to face charges.

Anonymous said...

i think mladic should be turned over imediatally it would give us better relations with europien countrys thus giving us a better chance at keeping kosovo

Anonymous said...

Time to wake up from your "keeping Kosovo" dream. With the way you think i am seeing Serbia being a UN governed country.

Anonymous said...

Mladic is just the start. They need to give up Karadjic as well. Then they need to eliminate mafias influence on government. See what is happening to Divac and Karic family, they obviously stept into wrong foot the whole country is after them. Kostunica in Serbia is considered moderate, everywhere else in planet he would be a right wing radical. That explains the situation in Serbia. Don't worry guys time is working against them and for us.

Anonymous said...

Here is a good article for the blind and deaf serbs

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2006/02/world_closes_in.html


"In researching the story we will broadcast next month, we met an "insider" -- a former high official in the Serbian secret police -- who tells FRONTLINE/World that Serbian intelligence had a fix on Mladic back in 2001, and that Kostunica personally blocked him from arresting the fugitive general."


Hmm, so your "moderate" prime minister personally stopped the arrest. Wonder why?
The reason follows:


""Serbia these days is at a crossroads," journalist Saska Rankovic, an analyst with the Beta news agency, told me from Belgrade yesterday. "Mladic isn't just an ordinary war criminal. He is a huge figure, he is the link between Karadzic and Milosevic, the link between Serbia and [the] Srebrenica [massacre]. It won't be just Mladic on trial, it will be Serbia. And I think what is going on now is an end game, negotiations over what Mladic will say at The Hague, what posture he will take."


So this is the whole meaning of the Mladic story. If Serbia delivers him, he is the direct link between Serbia and Bosnia, and since Serbia is on trial, this would be a crucial blow to chetniks. Bosnias case in the court would be much more strong. The result is conviction for genocide and billions in compensation.
If Mladic is not arrested, bye bye EU and welcome radicals. That would push the country even more backwards.

Either EU with a genocide conviction and billions to pay or no EU with radicals and socialists running the country again. That'a a tough choice to make. But this is what happens when you massacre, kill and rape...

Who would want to be associated with (not to mention ruled by) this criminal state... No wonder even Montenegro wants out. I just hope they do it before Serbia gets convicted of genocide...


Enjoy chetniks

Tosi
Sweden

Anonymous said...

Dream on Ivan, you and all your serbian scumbags. You are going to sell you mothers and your sisters to pay for Bosnia and Kosova.
I can help you out with that. Feel free to ask for a wholesale price.
Go to hell bastard Serbs!!!!!

Anonymous said...

TANJUG= telegrafska agencija nove jugoslavije!!!!

what is this 1950's ??? Oxymoron agency for an oxymoron public!
Contact Group said clearly " will of the people"....THAT'S ALL WE NEED TO CLOSE THE FREAKIN THING ONCE AND FOR ALL.

You servs mind ur problems like that Nikolic freak or inept Kostunica that have stoped serbia dean on their tracks!

Anonymous said...

"I think if you do get independence ( your prime minister doubts that), then Serbia should start the same case Bosnia started against SCG for ethnically clensing Serbs( does March 2004 ring a bell)."

HAHAHA. Yet you seem to forgett, 200 burned mosques, 120-200 homes burned down, 1.5million displaced. We rebuilt the houses, what has your pathetic government done so far?

Anonymous said...

Mistake, 120-200 thousand**

Anonymous said...

to my friends siptari
why are you so furious?
is it because you know you will not
get an independence?
all you can do is to give each other moral support, and nothing else.....
to ivan and cvijus
why do you bother at all?
how can you react civilized to the fury of mad dogs?
pozdrav svim srbima na svetu :)
ne dajte se braco!!