Deputy Prime Minister resigns over failure to arrest Mladic

Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus resigned today over the government’s failure to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic and the resulting suspension of EU pre-membership talks with Serbia.

The government “betrayed the most important interest of the country and citizens of Serbia” by failing to arrest Mladic and so secure the conditions for talks with the European Union, Labus said in his resignation letter to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

Labus is also Serbia’s chief negotiator with the EU.

The European Union announced Wednesday it suspended pre-membership talks with Serbia-Montenegro in response to Serbia’s failure to deliver the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander to the UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, by an April 30 deadline.

“As a vice premier and the chief of the negotiating team for joining the EU, I do not want to be part of the policy” of failed promises toward The Hague tribunal, Labus said.

Expressing his disappointment with the failure to meet the EU demand, Labus said he remains “deeply convinced that there is no better way of life than the life in the European community.”

“Therefore, I have no other choice but to resign,” he added, but immediately stressed that his departure may not necessarily lead to the collapse of the Cabinet.

His liberal party, G17 Plus, plans an internal vote Saturday on whether to quit the government, he said.

Even if the party decides to quit the government, its deputies in Serbia’s parliament will continue to support the minority Cabinet “as long as Kosovo talks continue,” Labus said. He was referring to crucial international negotiations concerning Serbia’s breakaway southern province.

Asked if Mladic was hiding in Serbia, Labus said: “They (the security services) searched for Mladic everywhere except where he was hiding.” He declined to elaborate his apparent criticism of Serbia’s secret service, which is said to be staffed by hard-line nationalists and Mladic’s supporters.

“I don’t blame Gen Mladic, if I blame someone I blame our (security) services. They did not do their job properly,” Labus said.