Report Mladic spoke to Del Ponte is “lunacy”: aide

BELGRADE (Reuters) – A report in a Bosnian weekly that top
Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic told U.N. chief
prosecutor Carla del Ponte over the phone that he would
surrender soon is “total lunacy,” her spokesman said on Friday.

Slobodna Bosna quoted a source close to Serbian Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica as saying the premier called Mladic
on March 29 when his guest Del Ponte asked how he could sure of
delivering the former Bosnian Serb general to the Hague
tribunal within weeks.

The report said Kostunica put Mladic on speakerphone so Del
Ponte could hear him in person promising to surrender and
asking for medical treatment. The five minute conversation also
covered Mladic’s preferences over arrangements of a surrender,
it said.

“This is total lunacy. It is absolutely not true,” said Del
Ponte’s spokesman Anton Nikiforov, adding that on legal grounds
it was impossible for the prosecutor to discuss such matters
with an accused.

Mladic is accused of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre of 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo
which claimed over 10,000 civilian lives. His handover is key
to Serbia’s bid to eventually join the European Union.

Del Ponte says he is hiding in Serbia, protected by
hardliners. Belgrade denies knowing his whereabouts or being in
contact with him, but Kostunica pledged repeatedly in recent
weeks he will soon meet EU demands for Mladic to be handed
over.

After a positive report from Del Ponte, the EU decided last
week to go ahead with talks on closer ties rather than suspend
them. Nikiforov said on Thursday Kostunica had persuaded Del
Ponte that Mladic would be handed over to The Hague this month.

The prospect of a new deadline has sparked a new round of
speculation in the Serbian press, which is periodically full of
reports quoting anonymous sources that Mladic is either
considering surrender, or ready to die to avoid arrest.

Serbia’s high-selling daily Blic on Friday quoted a source
close to the Hague tribunal as saying that despite all attempts
at negotiations, Mladic had not decided to hand himself in.

“Knowing his character, it was clear from the start that he
would never agree to something like that,” the source said.

But no matter whether there was a surrender or an arrest,
the Serb government would be careful not to humiliate him by
sending him to The Hague “secretly, at night, by helicopter,
with a bag over his head,” the source added.

Newspapers also gave extensive coverage to accusations by
members of Mladic’s family in Serbia, including his son and
four male relatives, that they had been harassed by police.

The description of the events in different media ranged
from “brutal beatings” to “overnight detention” and “friendly
chat.” Mladic’s son Darko said that “regardless of what the
police do, they will not get any results.”

Serbia’s Interior Ministry has refused to comment on the
reports.