Serbian military denies sheltering Ratko Mladic

Serbia-Montenegro’s military today denied it was sheltering war crimes fugitive General Ratko Mladic, one of the most-wanted suspects sought by the UN war crimes tribunal.

The government of Republika Srpska, the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia, said in a report published yesterday that the indicted wartime Bosnian Serb army commander was sheltered by “individuals” in the Serbia-Montenegro and the Bosnian Serb military.

The Serbia-Montenegro military said in a statement that it “firmly” denies “aiding” Mladic in his refuge.

“The Serbia-Montenegro Defence Ministry and military officials have repeatedly denied such reports after numerous controls” of the military installations, the statement said.

In an interview to be published by the Politika newspaper tomorrow, Serbia-Montenegro’s Defence Minister Zoran Stankovic said that the country’s failure to capture Mladic “has now become dramatic.”

“If he does not face the (UN) tribunal soon ... we’ll face relative (international) isolation,” said Stankovic, a longtime friend of Mladic.

He said he did not believe Mladic would surrender voluntarily.

Mladic, who was charged by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for the slaughter of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, lived freely in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, until 2002.

When, under Western pressure, Serbia’s new pro-democracy authorities signalled that they might have to hand Mladic over to the tribunal, he disappeared from public view.

The UN war crimes prosecutors have repeatedly accused hard-liners in the Serbian military of sheltering Mladic.