"State never negotiated Mladić surrender"

Rasim Ljajic, who heads a council for Hague cooperation, says Serbia's authorities have never negotiated with Ratko Mladic regarding his surrender. He told a B92 Radio program this morning in Belgrade that the authorities never had a chance to do that. "State never negotiated Mladic surrender" "Nobody's ever negotiated with Ratko Mladic and we never had a chance to negotiate, during the time I've been working on this. There has been no message, conditionally speaking, from Mladic's side, to engage in negotiations," said Ljajic. He added that "now is not the time to start a debate, since the story has not been finished". According to Ljajic, there were different phases in the search for the former military leader of Bosnia's Serbs, who is wanted by the Hague Tribunal on a genocide and war crimes indictment. "Several times it seemed as if the arrest was close at hand and that we had a good lead, and then it turned out otherwise," Ljajic told B92. "The fact is that security services are working hard, intensively, and that they have excellent cooperation. I'm sure that the job will be done, but I couldn't say when, how or under which circumstances," Ljajic concluded. Rasim Ljajic (Beta, file)

"State never negotiated Mladić surrender"

"Nobody's ever negotiated with Ratko Mladić and we never had a chance to negotiate, during the time I've been working on this. There has been no message, conditionally speaking, from Mladić's side, to engage in negotiations," said Ljajić.

He added that "now is not the time to start a debate, since the story has not been finished".

According to Ljajić, there were different phases in the search for the former military leader of Bosnia's Serbs, who is wanted by the Hague Tribunal on a genocide and war crimes indictment.

"Several times it seemed as if the arrest was close at hand and that we had a good lead, and then it turned out otherwise," Ljajić told B92.

"The fact is that security services are working hard, intensively, and that they have excellent cooperation. I'm sure that the job will be done, but I couldn't say when, how or under which circumstances," Ljajić concluded.