Mladic Still Hiding in Serbia?
April 30, 2006, 2:13 pm |
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By Andrew L. Jaffee
Serbia had promised to hand over war criminal Ratko Mladic by the end of April. Well, today is April 30, and there’s no sign that Mladic is any nearer to facing justice. Remember that Mladic and his nefarious accomplice, Radovan Karadzic, carried out unspeakable atrocities in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 1992 to 1995, not the least of which was the massacre of Srebrenica, in which 7,000 Muslim men and boys were ruthlessly slaughtered. Serbs murdered 250,000 Bosnian citizens during their “war” against Bosnia. But it seems that some in Serbia consider these two men as heroes. From the BBC:
Ratko Mladic is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
A spokesman for the UN chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said she was given that assurance last week by the Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica.
“We received clear assurances from Kostunica for the delivery of Ratko Mladic by the end of April,” Anton Nikiforov said on Thursday.
The Serbian government has admitted that Mr Mladic was sheltered by the military until 2002, and that his family were drawing a pension on his behalf until December last year.
Along with his civilian counterpart, Radovan Karadzic, he is the most wanted war crimes suspect in Europe.
Today, the Beeb reports:
The EU says it will stop talks on closer ties with Serbia-Montenegro if Gen Mladic is not arrested by 30 April.
On Friday, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said it was time to “locate, arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic to the Hague (tribunal) without delay”.
I don’t have much hope — or respect — for EU deadlines.
I’ve faced a strange political dilemma for being an outspoken critic of Serbian war crimes. On the one hand, the “mainstream” press harps on these war crimes while rationalizing crimes committed by, for example, Islamist extremists. On the other hand, I’ve been berated for reminding people about Serb crimes by those who, because of Muslim terrorism, lump all Muslims as terrorists, and seek to rationalize Srebrenica as some type of payback to be exacted from the Islamic world.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time — nor do I wish to. A war crime is a war crime. A rose by any other name.
Related: Europe, Balkans