Ljajić: Hague business as usual

Rasim Ljajic says that there are no special activities or searches currently in progress for the remaining Hague fugitives. Belgrade daily Blic claimed today that according to its sources, Ratko Mladic might appear before The Hague Tribunal by the end of August. Ljajic: Hague business as usual The president of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal said that the operations that the Council was conducting were “normal, routine checks of information we have. I can’t say we are now closer to either one of the fugitives than we were a while ago,” he said. Ljajic told journalists that the visit of Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz was expected in the first half of September. The daily wrote that annual leave had been postponed for members of the operative team responsible for the arrest of Mladic. According to the source, who the newspaper claims to be a senior government official, the authorities would try to use August as a “dead” period to arrest Mladic, because the West still insisted on his extradition. War Crimes Prosecutor and second coordinator of the Action Team for Cooperation with the Hague Vladimir Vukcevic said that the arrests of Mladic and Goran Hadzic remained the priorities, but said that he would reveal more about the operations “when the time is right”. Pointing out that it was not proper for a war crimes prosecutor to reveal his future decisions, Vukcevic told Belgrade weekly Vreme that he could not see Serbia in the future without the two remaining fugitives in The Hague. "I don’t see either Europe, or Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia, let alone a civilized lawful country, if we don’t morally purify ourselves by arresting those suspected of the grossest breaches of humanitarian law” he said. Vukcevic stressed that it was time that the Tribunal gave clear support to a European Serbia by submitting a positive report on its cooperation with the Hague. Rasim Ljajic (FoNet, archive)

Ljajić: Hague business as usual

The president of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal said that the operations that the Council was conducting were “normal, routine checks of information we have. I can’t say we are now closer to either one of the fugitives than we were a while ago,” he said.

Ljajić told journalists that the visit of Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz was expected in the first half of September.

The daily wrote that annual leave had been postponed for members of the operative team responsible for the arrest of Mladić. According to the source, who the newspaper claims to be a senior government official, the authorities would try to use August as a “dead” period to arrest Mladić, because the West still insisted on his extradition.

War Crimes Prosecutor and second coordinator of the Action Team for Cooperation with the Hague Vladimir Vukčević said that the arrests of Mladić and Goran Hadžić remained the priorities, but said that he would reveal more about the operations “when the time is right”.

Pointing out that it was not proper for a war crimes prosecutor to reveal his future decisions, Vukčević told Belgrade weekly Vreme that he could not see Serbia in the future without the two remaining fugitives in The Hague.

"I don’t see either Europe, or Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia, let alone a civilized lawful country, if we don’t morally purify ourselves by arresting those suspected of the grossest breaches of humanitarian law” he said.

Vukčević stressed that it was time that the Tribunal gave clear support to a European Serbia by submitting a positive report on its cooperation with the Hague.