President confirms last Hague fugitive's arrest

BELGRADE -- Serbian President Boris Tadić told an extraordinary news conference in Belgrade on Wednesday that Goran Hadžić had been arrested.

Boris Tadić

The Security-Information Agency BIA made the arrest on Mt. Fruška Gora at 08:24 CET today, said Tadić.

Hadžić is a former political leader of Serbs in Croatia charged with war crimes by the Hague Tribunal.

"Serbia has finalized the most difficult chapters of its cooperation with the Hague, and will continue to fulfill its international obligations," he stated.

Tadić was also eager to "immediately deny" reports that Serbia knew where Hadžić was hiding, adding that "something similar happened when Ratko Mladić was arrested".

"That is absolutely not true," Tadić said. and added that he "did not expect anything from the EU".

"The arrest of Goran Hadžić was our obligation and we did it," the president explained.

"The cooperation with the Hague was a problem for Serbia in cooperating with the international community. After the Council for National Security was formed, Karadžić, Mladić and Hadžić were arrested and a methodology and investigative procedures were put in place which gave visible and concrete results. The Action Team was working behind the Council and I wish to also congratulate the BIA, which conducted the arrest," stated Tadić.

Tadić also told reporters that Serbia launched an investigation with the aim of discovering who helped Hadžić while he was hiding from the authorities.