Commissioner Rehn urges Serbia to arrest Ratko Mladic

Friday deadline set

Ratko Mladic

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EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said earlier this week that Serbia must arrest Bosnian Serb Ratko Mladic - indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague - by Friday at the latest, if the country wishes to continue its Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) talks with the European Union.
      "If Serbia arrests Mladic , the negotiations can be continued on the same day", Rehn reported to Helsingin Sanomat.
     
Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte visited Belgrade on Wednesday, negotiating the capture of Mladic. On Friday, del Ponte is to talk with Olli Rehn in Brussels about Serbia's willingness to cooperate. Afterwards, Rehn will report whether or not he will propose the suspension of Serbia's SAA talks.
      "The government of Serbia will have to prove that it is capable of cooperating with The Hague. Otherwise, the Union has no other alternative than to suspend the talks", noted the Finnish EU Commissioner after having discussions with Serbia's political leadership on Wednesday.
     
According to preliminary estimates, del Ponte's view will be that Serbia is not "fully cooperating" with The Hague. This would imply that the member states of the European Union should halt the SAA talks with Serbia. The negotiations were scheduled to resume on April 5th.
      The suspension of Serbia's SAA discussions with Brussels would bring to a halt its progress towards eventual EU membership.
     
"If the EU continues the talks before Mladic has been captured, the Union has no credibility left in Serbia", according to one anonymous diplomatic source.
      Former Bosnian Serb Army leader Ratko Mladic has been sought for more than a decade by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, indicted for serious war crimes including the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred. Mladic is believed to be hiding in Serbia under the protection of the Serbian army.


Links:
  Ratko Mladic (Wikipedia)
  ICTY in The Hague

Helsingin Sanomat