a senior United States official said General Ratko Mladic’s days as fugitive from war crimes justice "are numbered." US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns also announced Washington is lifting a freeze on an aid package to reward Serbia’s efforts to capture him and other suspects. Burns told reporters Thursday, June 9, in Belgrade that one of the most wanted men by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal may not be on the run much longer.
He said he "was assured by Serbian officials" that they are doing their best to capture General Mladic and deliver him to The Hague court. "My strong impression from our discussions here in Belgrade is that the government is working very seriously to find General Mladic. And that there will be a sincere attempt to capture him. Or to have him voluntarily surrender and send him to [the UN Tribunal at] The Hague. All the world is now focused on this question. And we are confident that his days in relative freedom are numbered," he added.
General Maldic has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal for his alleged involvement in killing nearly eight-thousand Muslim men and boys around the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995. Christian aid groups, including Samaritan’s Purse of evangelist Franklin Graham have said in recent years they tried to give hope and assistance to Muslim survivors in the blood soaked area, BosNewsLife learned.
DIFFICULT POSITION
Local commentators say Belgrade is in a difficult position to arrest General Mladic who is seen by many people in Serbia as a hero. Recent opinion polls show nearly half of the population in this deeply Orthodox nation does not believe Europe’s worst single atrocity since World War Two ever took place.
But Vladeta Jankovic, the foreign affairs adviser to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, indicated General Mladic will be in UN custody soon. "I am certainly not in a position to give any dates. But we are working on it, and we have taken it seriously. And we have committed ourselves to fulfill our obligations to the international tribunal in The Hague fully with no limits, which means that everybody is included," he said.
The search was boosted after Serbian television for the first time aired graphic images of Serbs involved in Srebrenica last week, including the killing of six emaciated Muslim men and boys. Some of them were shot at close range, others after being tortured, the video film showed. Eight people were detained following the broadcast amid pressure on the Serbian Orthodox Church.
NEW GRAVE
Independent Belgrade based B92-radio reported that a Serbian Orthodox Church priest could be seen blessing members of the paramilitary Scorpions involved in the killings. B92 qouted religious socialist Mirko Djordjevic as saying that the priest "has no right to bless arms or those who use them."
In addition news emerged late Thursday that 134 human remains were discovered in a fresh mass grave in the village of Liplje, about 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from Srebrenica. Dutch general news agency ANP quoted the Commission of Missing Persons of Bosnian Muslims and Croats as saying they expect to find at least a further 50 human remains of people killed in the 1995 massacre.
Identified human remains will be reburied during a special memorial service at the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre near the Bosnian town next month, July 11, ANP reported.
BOSNIA PRESSURED
Jankovic said Belgrade is also putting pressure on the Serb part of neighboring Bosnia Herzegovina to extradite former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, who is seen as the architect of the Srebrenica massacre. "Absolutely. And you see we have proved that we were able within two months time to persuade 14 inductees to present themselves to The Hague. Nobody expected that we would do it. And nobody believed us that we would," he explained.
The recent arrests helped persuade Washington to release 10 million dollars in aid to Serbia.
Jankovic said Thursday’s announcement by Burns of the lifting of the freeze on the aid package marks both "a symbolic gesture and the beginning of the normalization in diplomatic relations with the United States." (With BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest, BosNewsLIfe Research and reports from Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and the United States)
