Serbian Media Fan Mladic Rumours

22/02/2006| IslamWeb

The fate of war crimes suspect General Ratko Mladic remains unclear amid conflicting reports of his whereabouts.

Some Serbian newspapers on Wednesday suggested Gen Mladic was either under arrest or being talked into surrender.

On Tuesday, Belgrade's Studio B TV said he had been located near Bosnia's Serbian border.

But the Serbian government rejected reports of his capture as "manipulation which damages the government" and it was also denied by The Hague tribunal.

Nonetheless, BBC correspondents say some form of talks may be under way.

Gen Mladic, who is 63, is wanted by the international tribunal in The Hague for war crimes.

European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn is due to present a report early next week to EU foreign ministers on whether Serbia is cooperating with the tribunal.

The EU warned Serbia in January that moves towards membership could be halted if Belgrade does not hand over Gen Mladic.

'Secure location'

On Wednesday, Serb dailies Glas Javnosti and Blic and the Bosnian Serb newspaper Nezavisne Novine said Gen Mladic was at a secure location discussing conditions for his surrender with the government.

However the largest-circulation newspaper, Vecernje Novosti, only said that the net was tightening around him and political preparations for his surrender were complete.

Another daily, the Politika, said an operation to capture Gen Mladic was underway, but did not report an outcome.

Dismissing reports of Gen Mladic's arrest on Tuesday, government spokesman Srdjan Djuric said such speculation detracted from Belgrade's efforts "to fully complete its co-operation with The Hague".

'Immediate reach'

The EU and the tribunal also said they had no information about the reported arrest.

But tribunal spokeswoman Florence Hartmann repeated assertions made by Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Gen Mladic is in Serbia and "in the immediate reach of the authorities".

"We have said for the last 10 days that the arrest could take place very quickly," she said, quoted by the Associated Press.

Gen Mladic was Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's army chief throughout the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

The court has indicted him over the siege of Sarajevo, which claimed at least 10,000 lives, and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys were killed.

It was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

PHOTO CAPTION

This is an undated file picture of then-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, left and his military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, right, in Mt. Jahorina, Bosnia. (AP)