Ljajić: Hague issue ends this year

Labor and Social Policies Minister Rasim Ljajic told Radio Free Europe that he expects the issue with the Hague Tribunal to be resolved by the end of the year. "I cannot believe that this much effort and work by the institutions will not give its final results, to have [Ratko] Mladic and [Goran] Hadzic located and extradited to the Hague Tribunal," Ljajic, who also heads the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, said. Ljajic: Hague issue ends this year “Literally, all capacities of the security services and other institutions are working on finishing this issue as soon as possible. This is a topic which, not only halts Serbia on the road of European integration, this issue complicates out internal political life and radicalizes it even further,” Ljajic said. He added that cooperation between the security services of other countries is based on the transfer of information. Ljajic said that foreign services are not participating in the search for the Hague fugitives in Serbia but “all information is welcomed, every cooperation with these services is more than necessary.” “It would be very important for us to have [Chief Hague Prosecutor] Serge Brammertz’s report to the Security Council in June in the phrase—Serbia has completed cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. I hope that the report will be as same as the last one, except that it will give a positive intonation, considering that Serbia is doing everything it can in the search for the Hague indictees,” continued the minister. He also said that the Netherlands will continue to insist on its stance, and that Mladic must be arrested in order for that country to consider cooperation with the tribunal to be complete. “We have assurances that there will be no further obstacles on the road for Serbia towards the European Union, and that we will have to do everything that other countries have to do in order to join the path of European integrations,” he concluded.

Ljajić: Hague issue ends this year

“Literally, all capacities of the security services and other institutions are working on finishing this issue as soon as possible. This is a topic which, not only halts Serbia on the road of European integration, this issue complicates out internal political life and radicalizes it even further,” Ljajić said.

He added that cooperation between the security services of other countries is based on the transfer of information.

Ljajić said that foreign services are not participating in the search for the Hague fugitives in Serbia but “all information is welcomed, every cooperation with these services is more than necessary.”

“It would be very important for us to have [Chief Hague Prosecutor] Serge Brammertz’s report to the Security Council in June in the phrase—Serbia has completed cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. I hope that the report will be as same as the last one, except that it will give a positive intonation, considering that Serbia is doing everything it can in the search for the Hague indictees,” continued the minister.

He also said that the Netherlands will continue to insist on its stance, and that Mladić must be arrested in order for that country to consider cooperation with the tribunal to be complete.

“We have assurances that there will be no further obstacles on the road for Serbia towards the European Union, and that we will have to do everything that other countries have to do in order to join the path of European integrations,” he concluded.