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Del Ponte dismisses report of chat with Mladic

Posted on: Friday, 7 April 2006, 12:01 CDT

By Alexandra Hudson and Beti Bilandzic

AMSTERDAM/BELGRADE (Reuters) - A report that top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic had told U.N. prosecutor Carla del Ponte by phone he would surrender soon is "total lunacy," her spokesman said on Friday.

The report in the Bosnian weekly Slobodna Bosna was one of many in a wave of speculation about Serbia's moves to bring Mladic to justice and fulfil a key condition to join the European mainstream after the wars of the 1990s.

It quoted a source it said was close to Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica as saying the premier called Mladic on March 29 when his guest Del Ponte asked how he could be sure of delivering the former general to the Hague war crimes court 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. Legally, it was impossible for Del Ponte to discuss such matters with an accused, he added.

Mladic is twice indicted for genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, which killed more than 10,000 civilians. His handover is crucial 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, but Kostunica has promised 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 court this month.

In a sign that Belgrade was trying harder to show progress, deputies in the slow-moving parliament of Serbia-Montenegro adopted a law on Friday to freeze the assets of fugitives from The Hague, having delayed the vote repeatedly since June 2005.

NO "BAG OVER THE HEAD"

The prospect of a new deadline has sparked a new wave of rumours in the Serbian press, which periodically quotes anonymous sources as saying Mladic is either considering surrender, or ready to die to avoid arrest.

The latest press suggestion was that Mladic might be handed over on Catholic Good Friday, but not during Serb Orthodox Easter a week later, so as not to upset Serb nationalists who idolize him.

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.

But 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 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.

Source: REUTERS

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