Dutch FM: Govt. promised Mladić arrest

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen says his country will be among the first to ratify the SAA once Serbia honors its pledge to arrest Ratko Mladic. “If the Serbian authorities honor their pledge—to cooperate fully with the Hague Tribunal—that means that they’ll arrest Ratko Mladic. Holland will then happily be the first country to ratify the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia,” Verhagen told Novi Sad daily Dnevnik. Dutch FM: Govt. promised Mladic arrest Verhagen said that prior to the May parliamentary elections, President Boris Tadic and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic had promised him that if they received a mandate from the people, the new government would arrest Mladic. “Holland has always been strict, but fair, on this issue of EU expansion. If the EU wants to have the support of the citizens for its political expansion, then politicians have to keep the promises they made,” said the minister, adding that the EU had “set the criteria for both membership and the SAA, and they apply to everyone.” Asked whether he believed Serbia was doing everything in its power to arrest Mladic, he replied that “I believe Serbia can arrest Mladic.” “Senior Serbian officials promised me that once they had won at the elections and changed certain people in certain institutions, full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal would be achieved very quickly,” said Verhagen. “We’re not asking anything else of the Serbian authorities other than to honor their promise. I’ve discussed it with Jeremic and Tadic on a number of occasions. We’re not asking for something they can’t do; besides, why would they promise something they can’t do?” asked the minister. To the authorities’ claims that the “net” around the war crimes fugitive had been set, but that it was still not clear when he would end up in it, Verhagen replied: “When they told me that, and I asked [Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge] Brammertz whether he thought full cooperation had been reached, he did not give me a positive answer.” “I agree that there have been positive advances in Serbia’s cooperation with the Tribunal since the new government took power. We welcomed the arrest of [Radovan] Karadzic and the progress in cooperation. But there’s a big difference between progress and full cooperation,” he pointed out. Verhagen denied that Holland was applying special conditions when it came to Serbia, or that Holland was Serbia’s only obstacle to the EU. “That’s not true at all, that’s nonsense. We’ve always said that Serbia’s place is in the EU, and we’re ready to work with her to realize her European future. Thus far, we’ve helped Serbia directly from our own budget with over EUR 50mn, which is a significant amount in terms of our share of overall EU aid,” the minister underlined. Vuk Jeremic, Maxime Verhagen (FoNet, archive)

Dutch FM: Govt. promised Mladić arrest

Verhagen said that prior to the May parliamentary elections, President Boris Tadić and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić had promised him that if they received a mandate from the people, the new government would arrest Mladić.

“Holland has always been strict, but fair, on this issue of EU expansion. If the EU wants to have the support of the citizens for its political expansion, then politicians have to keep the promises they made,” said the minister, adding that the EU had “set the criteria for both membership and the SAA, and they apply to everyone.”

Asked whether he believed Serbia was doing everything in its power to arrest Mladić, he replied that “I believe Serbia can arrest Mladić.”

“Senior Serbian officials promised me that once they had won at the elections and changed certain people in certain institutions, full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal would be achieved very quickly,” said Verhagen.

“We’re not asking anything else of the Serbian authorities other than to honor their promise. I’ve discussed it with Jeremić and Tadić on a number of occasions. We’re not asking for something they can’t do; besides, why would they promise something they can’t do?” asked the minister.

To the authorities’ claims that the “net” around the war crimes fugitive had been set, but that it was still not clear when he would end up in it, Verhagen replied: “When they told me that, and I asked [Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge] Brammertz whether he thought full cooperation had been reached, he did not give me a positive answer.”

“I agree that there have been positive advances in Serbia’s cooperation with the Tribunal since the new government took power. We welcomed the arrest of [Radovan] Karadžić and the progress in cooperation. But there’s a big difference between progress and full cooperation,” he pointed out.

Verhagen denied that Holland was applying special conditions when it came to Serbia, or that Holland was Serbia’s only obstacle to the EU.

“That’s not true at all, that’s nonsense. We’ve always said that Serbia’s place is in the EU, and we’re ready to work with her to realize her European future. Thus far, we’ve helped Serbia directly from our own budget with over EUR 50mn, which is a significant amount in terms of our share of overall EU aid,” the minister underlined.