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28-04-06, 09:20
Serbia able but not willing to arrest Mladic, EU says
30.03.2006 - 18:32 CET | By Ekrem Krasniqi
Serbia is able but not willing to arrest top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said on Thursday (30 March) after meeting Bosnia and Herzegovina's leader Adnan Terzic in Brussels.
"We have a reasonable assumption that Serbia could arrest Mladic if it had the political will and if this political will was translated in concrete steps through the whole administration including the secret and intelligence services," Mr Rehn said, according to Balkans agency DTT-NET.COM.
The statement comes one day before UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte flies from Belgrade to Brussels to give her opinion on whether the EU should suspend Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) negotiations with Serbia.
The EU is due to start the third round of SAA talks with Serbia on 4 April, but the commissioner refused to say if he will take a decision on the issue on Friday (31 March) or on Tuesday.
The SAA is the first legal step toward future EU membership for the Balkan country.
The level of Belgrade's cooperation with Ms del Ponte's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has deteriorated since last year when several Serb indictees were handed over to The Hague, Mr Rehn explained.
"We have a very clear statement in the framework Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) that we can not conclude the agreement without full cooperation with the ICTY," he said.
"If [the] European Commission sees that there is deterioration of cooperation we must act."
The ICTY has charged Mr Mladic and the former political leader of Bosnia's Serb community, Radovan Karadzic, with crimes related to the killing of 8,000 Bosnian muslim boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995.
Ms del Ponte believes Mr Mladic is hiding in Serbia with the help of Serbian army officers, while she says that Mr Karadzic moves between the Republika Srpska region of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
The Serbian government on Wednesday asked for Ms del Ponte's patience on the Mladic issue, given the fragile political scene and the strong nationalist sentiment in the country.
Bosnian prime minister Adnan Terzic denied some of Ms del Ponte's claims, saying "according to the data we have Mladic and Karadzic aren't in Bosnia, but their supporters are."
Only EU membership can avert fresh Balkan tragedy
He added that full EU membership for the western Balkans is the best way to avoid the tragedy of the 1990s from happening again.
"We survived one cataclysm. We survived the EU's mistake at that time, but now the question is what is going to be the point if some member states make another mistake which the EU wouldn't be able to survive?" Mr Terzic said.
His remarks were a veiled reference to France, Germany and the Netherlands which have lately begun to question if the EU can take in any more states after Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.
But the prime minister added he was "encouraged" by Mr Rehn's "reaffirmation and confirmation" of the region's EU membership perspective, despite the "dissonant tones" from member states.
Bosnia and Herzegovina launched SAA talks with the EU last November, with Mr Rehn on Thursday urging progress in police, legislative and economic reforms.
30.03.2006 - 18:32 CET | By Ekrem Krasniqi
Serbia is able but not willing to arrest top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said on Thursday (30 March) after meeting Bosnia and Herzegovina's leader Adnan Terzic in Brussels.
"We have a reasonable assumption that Serbia could arrest Mladic if it had the political will and if this political will was translated in concrete steps through the whole administration including the secret and intelligence services," Mr Rehn said, according to Balkans agency DTT-NET.COM.
The statement comes one day before UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte flies from Belgrade to Brussels to give her opinion on whether the EU should suspend Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) negotiations with Serbia.
The EU is due to start the third round of SAA talks with Serbia on 4 April, but the commissioner refused to say if he will take a decision on the issue on Friday (31 March) or on Tuesday.
The SAA is the first legal step toward future EU membership for the Balkan country.
The level of Belgrade's cooperation with Ms del Ponte's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has deteriorated since last year when several Serb indictees were handed over to The Hague, Mr Rehn explained.
"We have a very clear statement in the framework Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) that we can not conclude the agreement without full cooperation with the ICTY," he said.
"If [the] European Commission sees that there is deterioration of cooperation we must act."
The ICTY has charged Mr Mladic and the former political leader of Bosnia's Serb community, Radovan Karadzic, with crimes related to the killing of 8,000 Bosnian muslim boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995.
Ms del Ponte believes Mr Mladic is hiding in Serbia with the help of Serbian army officers, while she says that Mr Karadzic moves between the Republika Srpska region of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
The Serbian government on Wednesday asked for Ms del Ponte's patience on the Mladic issue, given the fragile political scene and the strong nationalist sentiment in the country.
Bosnian prime minister Adnan Terzic denied some of Ms del Ponte's claims, saying "according to the data we have Mladic and Karadzic aren't in Bosnia, but their supporters are."
Only EU membership can avert fresh Balkan tragedy
He added that full EU membership for the western Balkans is the best way to avoid the tragedy of the 1990s from happening again.
"We survived one cataclysm. We survived the EU's mistake at that time, but now the question is what is going to be the point if some member states make another mistake which the EU wouldn't be able to survive?" Mr Terzic said.
His remarks were a veiled reference to France, Germany and the Netherlands which have lately begun to question if the EU can take in any more states after Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.
But the prime minister added he was "encouraged" by Mr Rehn's "reaffirmation and confirmation" of the region's EU membership perspective, despite the "dissonant tones" from member states.
Bosnia and Herzegovina launched SAA talks with the EU last November, with Mr Rehn on Thursday urging progress in police, legislative and economic reforms.