Mladić’s flight: end of the road?

Mladić’s flight: end of the road?

In an interview to the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Carla Del Ponte complained about a lack of cooperation on the part of the international community. “No one is looking for Karadžić. We are now focused on Mladić, since we know where he is. And we know that Belgrade can deliver him to us”, Carla Del Ponte said.

Serbian PM Vojislav Koštunica repeated recently that Serbia was determined to complete its cooperation with the Hague, since that would give Belgrade a different position in its Kosovo negotiations. Koštunica added that the government was involved in a permanent media campaign calling on all the indictees to surrender. “This is a campaign we are constantly involved in, based on our belief that the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal is one our country’s main objectives, allowing us to continue our association talks with the EU, and giving us a different position in the complex circumstances, involving negotiations about that part of Serbia that has always been and always will be a part of Serbia”, Koštunica said. National council for cooperation with the Hague Tribunal chairman Rasim Ljajić told B92 that the services in charge of finding Mladić, i.e. the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), the Security and Intelligence Agency (BIA) and its military counterpart, will by the end of the week produce a joint operative plan of action, and that the new policy includes avoiding allowing for the media speculations on planned actions. Ljajić denied a warrant for Mladić’s arrest will be issued imminently. “None of the appropriate institutions mentioned that as a step that might follow. We are concentrated right now on bringing the various services to work together on a joint plan. For reasons I believe everyone understands we cannot discuss the details of that plan, and that is what we told John Clint Williams, U.S. Envoy for war crimes. How can we get Mladić if we report daily on the details of the operative plan”, Ljajić wondered.

MUP Inspector-General Vladimir Božović expects to soon receive progress report on the police actions of locating and arresting the Hague fugitive and warns that, if it does not happen, it will signal that the Action Plan on cooperation with the Tribunal cannot be implemented.