Ratko Mladic under arrest in Serbia
Source: Agencies |
May 27, 2011, Friday
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General Ratko Mladic, the brutal Bosnian Serb general suspected of leading the bloody massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, was arrested yesterday in Serbia after years in hiding, the country's president said.
The arrest 16 years after Mladic was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for genocide could be a jolt for Serbia's lagging efforts to join the European Union.
Mladic had two pistols when he was arrested but offered no resistance, and he appeared shrunken, bald and pale, Serbian officials and media said.
The country has been under intense pressure from the international community to catch Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect and the EU has insisted on his arrest as a condition for its membership bid. Mladic is charged with ordering the worst massacre in Europe since World War II and other crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. The general personally led his troops in the bloody Serb onslaught against the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia.
Just hours before the massacre, Mladic handed out candy to Muslim children in the town's square, assuring them everything would be fine and patting one child on the head. Then the shooting began and the bodies of the victims were bulldozed into mass graves.
"We ended a difficult period of our history and removed the stain from the face of the members of our nation wherever they live," President Boris Tadic said. He said the arrest was made by the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency.
He said Serbia had begun the process of extraditing the former general to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Mladic, 69, faces life imprisonment if tried and convicted of genocide and other charges. The UN court has no death penalty.
In Bosnia the head of a group of victims' family members, formed to keep the pressure on war crimes investigators to find the bodies and to arrest the perpetrators, welcomed the arrest. But Munira Subasic added: "I'm sorry for all the victims who are dead and cannot see this day."
Serbia has been under intense scrutiny over Mladic with the chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, complaining earlier this month that authorities were not doing enough to capture him and other war crimes fugitives. Brammertz's regular reports on Serbia's compliance are crucial for the Balkan country's efforts to become an EU member candidate.
With Mladic's arrest "we have opened the door for the negotiations and membership in the European Union," Tadic said.
Prosecutors have said they believed he was hiding in Serbia under the protection of hardliners who consider him a hero. Belgrade's media said Mladic was arrested yesterday in Lazarevo, a village some 100 kilometers northeast of Belgrade close to the northern Serbian town of Zrenjanin, at the home of relatives.
Belgrade's B-92 radio said Mladic was not in disguise when arrested, unlike wartime Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic who was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 disguised as a New Age guru.
Serbia's war crimes office said that the arrest represents "the fulfillment of justice."
"The victims and their families have long waited for this moment," it said in a statement. "Serbia has fulfilled its moral obligation toward the victims and their families."
The arrest 16 years after Mladic was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for genocide could be a jolt for Serbia's lagging efforts to join the European Union.
Mladic had two pistols when he was arrested but offered no resistance, and he appeared shrunken, bald and pale, Serbian officials and media said.
The country has been under intense pressure from the international community to catch Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect and the EU has insisted on his arrest as a condition for its membership bid. Mladic is charged with ordering the worst massacre in Europe since World War II and other crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. The general personally led his troops in the bloody Serb onslaught against the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia.
Just hours before the massacre, Mladic handed out candy to Muslim children in the town's square, assuring them everything would be fine and patting one child on the head. Then the shooting began and the bodies of the victims were bulldozed into mass graves.
"We ended a difficult period of our history and removed the stain from the face of the members of our nation wherever they live," President Boris Tadic said. He said the arrest was made by the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency.
He said Serbia had begun the process of extraditing the former general to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Mladic, 69, faces life imprisonment if tried and convicted of genocide and other charges. The UN court has no death penalty.
In Bosnia the head of a group of victims' family members, formed to keep the pressure on war crimes investigators to find the bodies and to arrest the perpetrators, welcomed the arrest. But Munira Subasic added: "I'm sorry for all the victims who are dead and cannot see this day."
Serbia has been under intense scrutiny over Mladic with the chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, complaining earlier this month that authorities were not doing enough to capture him and other war crimes fugitives. Brammertz's regular reports on Serbia's compliance are crucial for the Balkan country's efforts to become an EU member candidate.
With Mladic's arrest "we have opened the door for the negotiations and membership in the European Union," Tadic said.
Prosecutors have said they believed he was hiding in Serbia under the protection of hardliners who consider him a hero. Belgrade's media said Mladic was arrested yesterday in Lazarevo, a village some 100 kilometers northeast of Belgrade close to the northern Serbian town of Zrenjanin, at the home of relatives.
Belgrade's B-92 radio said Mladic was not in disguise when arrested, unlike wartime Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic who was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 disguised as a New Age guru.
Serbia's war crimes office said that the arrest represents "the fulfillment of justice."
"The victims and their families have long waited for this moment," it said in a statement. "Serbia has fulfilled its moral obligation toward the victims and their families."
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