Serb reports say Mladic arrested, no confirmation

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive
General Ratko Mladic has been arrested, the official Serbian
news agency Tanjug on Tuesday quoted a local television station
in Bosnia’s Serb Republic as saying.

It said TV BN reported that the wartime Bosnian Serb Army
commander had been taken into custody in the Serbian capital
Belgrade and was being transferred via the northeast Bosnia
city of Tuzla to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

There was no official confirmation of the report.

An earlier report by Belgrade’s “Studio B” television said
Mladic had been located “in the area of Tuzla,” which lies
close to the mountainous border with Serbia.

Mladic was indicted in 1995 for genocide for the 43-month
siege of Sarajevo which claimed 12,000 lives and for
orchestrating the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslims at
Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two.

Serbian newspapers were full of speculation on Tuesday that
Mladic could soon be on a plane to The Hague, in time to avert
suspension of European Union association talks with Belgrade.

Reports spoke of intense efforts by Belgrade to deliver the
63-year-old general to the United Nations court before the end
of February, either by arresting him or negotiating a
surrender.

This is the deadline for a report by EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn to the 25 EU foreign ministers assessing
whether Serbia is cooperating fully with the U.N. tribunal.

Vladeta Jankovic, adviser to Prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica, said efforts to find Mladic were “in full swing.” He
said he had no information Mladic had been found and denied the
prime minister had promised a deadline for a handover.

“The government is aware of the consequences,” he told B92
radio. “It might be a decisive moment, not only for the
survival of the government, but for the future prospects of the
state.”

Mladic’s handover was “almost a condition of survival.”

Belgrade is desperate to avoid suspension of Stabilization
and Association pact talks begun last year. They are the first
step to eventual EU membership — Serbia’s top priority — and
Brussels has warned they will stop if Mladic is not arrested.

Reports predicting his imminent arrest or detailing
official efforts to track him down intensify each time Serbia
faces a Western deadline for action, although Serbia constantly
protests that it has no evidence he is even in the country.

On Tuesday, the daily Blic quoted former state security
chief Goran Petrovic as saying the state was giving former
Bosnian Serb Army commander Mladic ten more days to surrender.

“Talks on Mladic’s surrender are in their final phase.
About 10 days are left for his handover and they are now
looking for an appropriate scenario for his surrender,”
Petrovic said. He said the authorities were in constant contact
with Mladic.

He lived openly in Belgrade until the fall of nationalist
strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 undermined his support.
Chief tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has repeatedly
charged that he is still protected by hardline elements in the
Army and security agencies of Serbia.

Serbian Human Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic said it would be
a good time to extradite Mladic, who is still regarded as a
hero-soldier by staunch nationalists opposed to his arrest.

“The latest polls show 57 percent of citizens are in favor
of this option. This is the largest percentage so far, much
higher than in 2005 let alone 2004, ” Ljajic said.