Belgrade denies reports of Mladic arrest

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The Serbian government on Tuesday
denied media reports that top Bosnian Serb warcrimes fugitive
Gen. Ratko Mladic had been arrested.

“The news about Ratko Mladic is not correct. It is a
manipulation which damages the government and does not
contribute to its efforts to fully complete its cooperation
with The Hague war crimes tribunal,” spokesman Srdjan Djuric
said.

Djuric was speaking to Reuters by telephone. No official
statement had yet been issued.

Serbia’s state news agency Tanjug earlier quoted a
television station in Bosnia’s Serb Republic as saying the
wartime Bosnian Serb Army commander was arrested in Belgrade.

TV BN had reported Mladic was being transferred via the
Bosnian city of Tuzla to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The
Hague. 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.

Independent Belgrade broadcaster B92 said that in spite of
Djuric’s denial, a number of sources said the 63-year old
general had been arrested in Serbia and transferred to Tuzla
for a flight to The Hague.

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.

His political boss Radovan Karadzic, indicted on the same
charges, is still at large.

Serbian dailies were speculating on Tuesday that Mladic
would be on a plane to The Hague before the end of February, in
time to avert suspension of European Union association talks
with Belgrade.

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.

Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for the U.N. war crimes
prosecutor, said they had no information on the reports. “We
have no reason to believe any of that … These are rumors, we
cannot comment on something that doesn’t exist,” she said.

Vladeta Jankovic, adviser to Prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica, said efforts to find Mladic were “in full swing.”

“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.”

EU WARNING

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.

Mladic lived openly in Belgrade until the fall of
nationalist strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 undermined his
support. Hague chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has repeatedly
charged that he is still protected by hardliners 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.