Evo kaze Tadic da Mladic nije u Srbiji, a gdje je pojma nemaju
Clanak iz danasnjeg Independenta
Serbs claim Mladic left country years ago
By Kim Sengupta in Belgrade
Published: 30 October 2007
Ratko Mladic, the war crimes fugitive whose arrest is a key condition for Serbia's entry into the European Union, has not been seen in the country for the past five years, and the security forces have no idea where he is, according to the President, Boris Tadic.
Serbia's failure to apprehend the former Bosnian Serb general is said to have led to heated exchanges with Carla del Ponte, the chief UN war crimes prosecutor, who was in Belgrade last week.
The Serbian government had announced a bounty of €1m (£700,000) earlier this month for Mladic, and officials had stated they were confident of tracking him down. This led to Ms del Ponte forecasting that an arrest was likely to take place "within weeks".
Mr Tadic seemed to pour cold water on this timeframe. "Our information is that Ratko Mladic was in Serbia in the middle of 2002, after that he disappeared and we don't know where he is," he told reporters. "If we knew where he and other fugitives were, we would arrest them. But I cannot seem to make the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia] understand that. We have co-operated fully [and] we have carried out hundreds of raids. But it seems it is hard getting that message over to the international community."
Ms del Ponte and other UN officials have repeatedly accused elements in the Serbian government and military of shielding Mladic, who is wanted for the massacre in 1995 of 8,000 Muslims in Srebenica. They are also said to be protecting Radovan Karadzic, the ex-Bosnian Serb president, indicted for genocide.
Mladic is widely believed to be hiding in Serbia. Karadzic, according to reports, may have fled to the eastern Bosnia-northern Montenegro border region.
The Serbian government points out that while the two men are among just four wanted war criminals still free, a number of prominent suspects, including Slobodan Milosevic, have been handed over. One of the latest was Vlastimir Djordevic, a former Serbian police commander, arrested four months ago.
A senior official with the war crimes tribunal said: "The Serbian government cannot just say that just because they had given over some of the suspects we should forget about the rest. Srebrenica was the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War and Mladic must answer the charges laid against him. For President Tadic to say that he has simply disappeared since 2002 beggars belief and raises questions about just how serious they are about this."
Some Serbians are angry that the West appears to be preparing to let Kosovo break away. A leading journalist in Belgrade said: "It seems we have to accept that we lose a part of our country, Kosovo, before we can become members. As far as the war crimes suspects are concerned there is a feeling enough is enough."
The Serbian economy remains in a precarious state and joining the EU is seen by the vast majority as the only hope of salvation. Slobodan Vucicevic, a Serbian entrepreneur, said: "If the handing over of Mladic and Karadzic is the obstacle [to EU membership), then our message to the government is: 'Just do it, do it for the sake of everyone.'"
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3109887.ece