Hunt for Mladic is on-going, say authorities

Serbian authorities are hunting for war crimes suspect General Ratko Mladic, but a number of raids on his alleged hide-outs – including a monastery – have failed to locate the elusive ex-commander, a top official said in an interview published today.

Rasim Ljajic, who heads the country’s committee for co-operation with the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, told the Blic daily that authorities would “extradite Mladic the moment we find him in the country”.

“There should be no doubt about that,” Ljajic said. He rejected Western accusations that authorities are secretly harbouring the man accused in the mass killings of Bosnian Muslims.

The UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, has indicted Mladic for atrocities in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

“All (police) actions conducted so far were not fake,” Ljajic was quoted as saying. “We really have been looking for him at all locations suggested by representatives of the international community, including a private clinic and an apartment in Belgrade, a house outside Belgrade, even in a monastery.”

The war in Bosnia was the bloodiest in the series of conflicts triggered by the break-up of Yugoslavia. Fighting for territory against Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats, the Bosnian Serbs had support from neighbouring Serbia and its then strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, also accused of war crimes.

After Milosevic’s ousting in 2000 and his subsequent extradition to the UN tribunal, Serbia has been under immense pressure to hand over all Serb suspects. More than a dozen surrendered voluntarily in recent months, but a few more remain at large.

Ljajic acknowledged that Serbia-Montenegro’s chances of joining the European Union “depends on solving the Mladic case”.