Serb minister sees Mladic in Hague "in a few days"

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11360750.htm ^ | 11 May 2006 17:37:57 GMT | Reuters

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

BELGRADE, May 11 (Reuters) - Top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic could be in detention at the Hague tribunal "in a few days", a Serbian government minister said on Thursday.

Zoran Loncar, who is a member of Serbia's National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal as well as Minister for Local Government, said he was optimistic and hopeful that the wartime Bosnian Serb Army commander would be handed over soon.

Addressing a news conference after a cabinet meeting, he said he hoped "no one will be surprised" if "fulfilment of the Hague obligation" is completed within the next few days, Beta news agency reported.

"I express optimism and hope that this can happen in a few days," Loncar said. He added that his optimism was based on the facts given to ministers as well as information received by the National Council.

Mladic's handover to international justice is a key condition for the eventual admission of Serbia to European Union and NATO membership, and the foreign investment that accompanies international endorsement of its democratic credentials.

However, there have been dozens of hints, nudges and speculative pronouncements about the imminent handover of the man wanted for the genocide of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995, and he is still at large.

The EU this month suspended talks with Belgrade on closer ties because Mladic had not been delivered to the United Nations war crimes court, and the United States is again warning that its 2006 aid to Serbia is also conditional on that action.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, under fire by pro-Western critics at home for failing to deliver Mladic in time to avoid the EU talks suspension, said once again on Thursday that he would keep his promise and insisted he had never given or set himself any deadline.

Kostunica made no mention of delivery "in a few days".

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

Hmmm. I wonder how that's going to happen in "a few days."

[kinoxi]

fighting muslims and destroyed by US airpower when winning... this is not right

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

Yes, and what the hypocrisy is that Agim Ceku gets off the hook (if you follow me).

Interesting is it not?

[kinoxi]

ceku is muslim. didn't you read your updated version of NEWSPEAK?

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

By the way, what I think what irritates the US military is, to this date, is that we (Serbs) shot down a stealth fighter.

It irritates them immensely.

[kinoxi]

why would a mature,well equipped force not learn from an unknown error in a machine. what is your point?

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

"what is your point?"

Think a bit harder.
Ceku (the current prime minister of Kosovo and a few years before standing next to Wesley Clark in photos) is no longer considered a "war criminal" in the context of the larger international community. And, Ramush Haradinaj will most likely be "exonerated" as well. Albeit, many, many, more Serbs are considered and will continued to be "war criminals." I'll explain more later.

[kinoxi]

i'm a bit suspect over the "shooting down a stealth" . the facts tend to lead to mechanical failure

[kinoxi]

wesley clark befriended many war criminals

[GAB-1955]

If the Serbs had been really fighting terrorism instead of disguising a nationalist war with that slogan, then they'd have a legitimate beef.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

["If the Serbs had been really fighting terrorism instead of disguising a nationalist war with that slogan..."]

So let me get this straight. The Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and the KLA were the "GOOD" and the Serbs were the "EVIL." (Of course, in different "conflicts.")

I understand now, I saw a similar explanation in a Gene Hackman movie. Thanks for reminding me.

[GAB-1955]

No, I don't see it that way. It was a series of three-way civil wars. The Serbs do have a bad habit of seeing themselves as victims, which isn't good for Serbia. They can't see that Serbs behaved badly, as well as the Croats and Bosniaks. Part of this comes to being lied to over and over again by Milosevic's propaganda machine. It is only with distance that the truth comes out; the KLA weren't saints, the Serbs weren't totally evil, but you have to face the truth as it comes out. The Serbs aren't victims of a conspiracy as much as they shot themselves in the feet with inept political plays that gained them no allies.

As for the loss of the F-117A, that was caused by political constraints forcing the plane to take the same path over and over again. Under those circumstances, and the fact it was flying over mountains in bad weather, it's reasonable to lose one.

[Bokababe]

Actually Serbs have been the ONLY ethnic group to admit that it was war time and they weren't angels in this civil war. All the other groups decry their "victimhood" on a daily basis, even when much of it had absolutely no basis in fact.

[FormerLib]

I think Mladic is already in the Hague, but it isn't admitted because the future Dhimmis would have to stop kicking the Serbs around and stop "fluffing" the Islamofascists.