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(CNN) -- Top war crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic remains at large despite rumors of his capture, according to the United Nations chief prosecutor.
Carla del Ponte told a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday the former Bosnian Serb Army commander was within reach of Serbian authorities and they must arrest him. She said no negotiations were under way for his surrender.
"Mladic is in Serbia, there's no doubt about it," she told reporters.
"He's been there since 1998 and, during all this time, he has been and he remains within reach of the Serbian authorities. He can and must be arrested immediately. And I expect all Serbian authorities to work much more intensively toward that objective."
The former commander of the Bosnian Serb army is indicted by the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands, for some of the worst atrocities during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Mladic and former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic are charged with being the masterminds behind the massacre on July 11, 1995 at Srebrenica of 8.000 Muslim men and boys.
That Mladic remains at large is seen as an embarrassment, a major failure of efforts to bring war criminals to justice.
Mladic was believed to have returned to Belgrade after the war but disappeared from the Serb capital after former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001. He was believed to be holed up in the border regions of Serbia and Bosnia.
European Union officials had given the Serb government until the end of February to hand Mladic and Karadzic over to The Hague, and threatened to freeze membership talks otherwise.
Full story on the rumors of Mladic capture
Full story on the slaughter at Srebrenica
Profile Ratko Mladic
Profile Radovan Karadzic
Although it has "only" been 10 years since the world witnessed one of the most bloody crimes against humanity since 1945, I have the impression that many people have forgotten this dark page in the history of the "civilised world". I must admit that the Balkan war had become a blurry memory for me as well. Untill I met Erzina (my Albanian girlfriend) and started to read up on the recent history of the region and the Albanian diaspora. But it was only when I heard the real life stories that I could grasp what had been going on during the war. One of my Albanian friends told me that a dozen of his cousins had been captured, disarmed and made POW's. They never returned home alive as they were butchered with bajonets by the Serbs. And that's just one of the horror stories which made my skin crawl...
And yet, in spite of the fact that the Balkan war is a huge stain of shame in the history of contemporary Europe, the masterminds behind the genocides and masacres are still at large after 10 years. To make it even more embarrassing, Mladic and Karadzic aren't hiding in a cave in some remote area like Bin Laden. No, they're just hiding somewhere in Serbia and Montenegro, a country of "only" 102.350 square km. It's a public secret that the Serbian government facilitated their escape and helped them to stay out of the hands of the UN war tribunal. It was for instance only recently that the news hit the street that after all theses years known war criminals were still on the official payroll of the Sebian army.
Mladic and Karadzic still can count on the support of a large part of the Serbian population and this is the main reason that the government in Belgrade has been reluctant to cooperate with the UN. They fear that if they play a role in the capturing of the two war criminals they would have major protests on their hands.
I just hope that the political pressure of the EU will put an end to this disgrace... Mladic once said his credo was that "borders are drawn with blood and beaconed with graves." My credo is that people with such a conviction are the ones that belong 6 foot underground...
Carla del Ponte told a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday the former Bosnian Serb Army commander was within reach of Serbian authorities and they must arrest him. She said no negotiations were under way for his surrender.
"Mladic is in Serbia, there's no doubt about it," she told reporters.
"He's been there since 1998 and, during all this time, he has been and he remains within reach of the Serbian authorities. He can and must be arrested immediately. And I expect all Serbian authorities to work much more intensively toward that objective."
The former commander of the Bosnian Serb army is indicted by the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands, for some of the worst atrocities during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Mladic and former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic are charged with being the masterminds behind the massacre on July 11, 1995 at Srebrenica of 8.000 Muslim men and boys.
That Mladic remains at large is seen as an embarrassment, a major failure of efforts to bring war criminals to justice.
Mladic was believed to have returned to Belgrade after the war but disappeared from the Serb capital after former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001. He was believed to be holed up in the border regions of Serbia and Bosnia.
European Union officials had given the Serb government until the end of February to hand Mladic and Karadzic over to The Hague, and threatened to freeze membership talks otherwise.
Full story on the rumors of Mladic capture
Full story on the slaughter at Srebrenica
Profile Ratko Mladic
Profile Radovan Karadzic
Although it has "only" been 10 years since the world witnessed one of the most bloody crimes against humanity since 1945, I have the impression that many people have forgotten this dark page in the history of the "civilised world". I must admit that the Balkan war had become a blurry memory for me as well. Untill I met Erzina (my Albanian girlfriend) and started to read up on the recent history of the region and the Albanian diaspora. But it was only when I heard the real life stories that I could grasp what had been going on during the war. One of my Albanian friends told me that a dozen of his cousins had been captured, disarmed and made POW's. They never returned home alive as they were butchered with bajonets by the Serbs. And that's just one of the horror stories which made my skin crawl...
And yet, in spite of the fact that the Balkan war is a huge stain of shame in the history of contemporary Europe, the masterminds behind the genocides and masacres are still at large after 10 years. To make it even more embarrassing, Mladic and Karadzic aren't hiding in a cave in some remote area like Bin Laden. No, they're just hiding somewhere in Serbia and Montenegro, a country of "only" 102.350 square km. It's a public secret that the Serbian government facilitated their escape and helped them to stay out of the hands of the UN war tribunal. It was for instance only recently that the news hit the street that after all theses years known war criminals were still on the official payroll of the Sebian army.
Mladic and Karadzic still can count on the support of a large part of the Serbian population and this is the main reason that the government in Belgrade has been reluctant to cooperate with the UN. They fear that if they play a role in the capturing of the two war criminals they would have major protests on their hands.
I just hope that the political pressure of the EU will put an end to this disgrace... Mladic once said his credo was that "borders are drawn with blood and beaconed with graves." My credo is that people with such a conviction are the ones that belong 6 foot underground...
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