Ljajić: We're ever closer to Mladić

Rasim Ljajic says that he is much more optimistic now when it comes to Ratko Mladic's arrest than he had been "until a few months ago". "It would be a big surprise if we failed to finish this task this year," the head of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal told daily Blic in an interview published on Sunday. Ljajic: We're ever closer to Mladic However, Ljajic would not mention any time framework, reiterating that "it is certain we now have more arguments in favor of optimism than during the past months". He also said he believed Serbia would extradite Mladic – the former military leader of Bosnia's Serbs, and Croatian Serb political leader Goran Hadzic, sooner than the Netherlands would "let up in their pressure". Ljajic told the newspaper his optimism was based on a "decisive coordination of the civilian and military services and all the information we have", and added that this information on Mladic is "increasing". While there is cooperation and exchange of information with foreign services, he continued, Serbia has "sufficient capacities", with her operatives taking part in the searched for the fugitives, "so there is no need to look for help from abroad". "I don't expect foreign services to solve the problem, I have more confidence in our services," he was quoted as saying. Asked who was financing Mladic's hiding, Ljajic said all the information gathered so far indicates that the former general's immediate security receives "token pay of several hundred euros", but that those who organize the hiding network took tens of thousands. "That's the money which the network's organizers got form their financiers, that is, entrepreneurs that mostly arrived to Serbia from Bosnia and started companies here." As for Hadzic, Ljajic said that "several searches for him had been launched lately", and that he believes they would yield results. The council president, who is also a minister in the Serbian cabinet, was recently on a visit to the United States. From there, he said, he returned convinced that Washington, "like most EU countries, except the Netherlands", believes Serbia has the political will to end the Hague cooperation. "The Hague issue no longer burdens our relations. What we have as a problem with Washington is the position on Kosovo," said Ljajic, adding that the ties between the two countries are now "bad" – something that, according to him, must be improved.

Ljajić: We're ever closer to Mladić

However, Ljajić would not mention any time framework, reiterating that "it is certain we now have more arguments in favor of optimism than during the past months".

He also said he believed Serbia would extradite Mladić – the former military leader of Bosnia's Serbs, and Croatian Serb political leader Goran Hadžić, sooner than the Netherlands would "let up in their pressure".

Ljajić told the newspaper his optimism was based on a "decisive coordination of the civilian and military services and all the information we have", and added that this information on Mladić is "increasing".

While there is cooperation and exchange of information with foreign services, he continued, Serbia has "sufficient capacities", with her operatives taking part in the searched for the fugitives, "so there is no need to look for help from abroad".

"I don't expect foreign services to solve the problem, I have more confidence in our services," he was quoted as saying.

Asked who was financing Mladić's hiding, Ljajić said all the information gathered so far indicates that the former general's immediate security receives "token pay of several hundred euros", but that those who organize the hiding network took tens of thousands.

"That's the money which the network's organizers got form their financiers, that is, entrepreneurs that mostly arrived to Serbia from Bosnia and started companies here."

As for Hadžić, Ljajić said that "several searches for him had been launched lately", and that he believes they would yield results.

The council president, who is also a minister in the Serbian cabinet, was recently on a visit to the United States. From there, he said, he returned convinced that Washington, "like most EU countries, except the Netherlands", believes Serbia has the political will to end the Hague cooperation.

"The Hague issue no longer burdens our relations. What we have as a problem with Washington is the position on Kosovo," said Ljajić, adding that the ties between the two countries are now "bad" – something that, according to him, must be improved.