EU urges Serbia to turn in Mladic

AS THE Serbian nation went on trial for genocide in The Hague yesterday, the EU gave the country until the end of March to turn over Ratko Mladic to the war crimes tribunal in the Dutch capital.

Chief prosecutor Carlo Del Ponte called on the EU to suspend Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) talks with Serbia. The Agreement is a first step towards EU membership.

Foreign ministers in Brussels were reluctant to isolate Serbia, the Germans arguing the EU could not afford to "lose the country."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and the Dutch Minister told reporters they wanted to take a tough line with Serbia.

The next round of SAA negotiations is due on April 4-5. An EU spokesperson said that gave Serbia roughly a month to co-operate fully with the Tribunal shorthand for activity leading to the arrest and transfer of Mladic to The Hague.

Meanwhile, Bosnia opened a landmark suit for genocide against Serbia and Montenegro in the UN's highest court in The Hague, the first time an entire nation has faced a trial for the crime.

Although individual Bosnian Serbs have been convicted on genocide charges, the International Court of Justice began hearing arguments on whether Serbia can be held responsible for the actions of its Bosnian Serb allies in the neighbouring republic and its own leaders during Yugoslavia's brutal secessionist war in the early 1990s.