Serbian Minister Vows To Resign If Mladic Not Caught

General Ratko Mladic's (left) fugitive status is hurting Serbia's international reputation (file photo) (epa) 17 February 2006 -- The defense minister of Serbia and Montenegro said today he will resign if fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is not captured soon.

General Zoran Stankovic, in an interview with the Associated Press, did not give any specific time frame.


Stankovic said until recently, no one in the government of Serbia and Montenegro had seriously worked on capturing Mladic. He said this has now changed and that a real effort is under way.


Stankovic called on Mladic to give himself up voluntarily. He said that by remaining on the run, Mladic was dragging the nation into poverty and international isolation.


Mladic, who commanded Bosnian Serb forces in the 1990s, has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague for his troops' massacre of 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica -- Europe's worst carnage since World War II.


(AP)

The Fugitives

The Fugitives

Ratko Mladic (left) confers with Radovan Karadzic during a meeting in Pale in 1993 (epa)

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Ten years have passed since former Bosnian Serb leader RADOVAN KARADZIC and his former military commander General RATKO MLADIC were indicted by the Hague-based war crimes tribunal for genocide and other war crimes. The two fugitives remain at large, despite the obligation of NATO-led peacekeepers and the various governments in the region to arrest the indictees and send them to The Hague. Many people wonder why the most powerful military alliance in history and a host of governments seeking Euro-Atlantic integration remain unable to catch the two... (more)


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To listen to wartime audio of Ratko Mladic, click here.

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Coffins of Srebrenica victims being prepared for burial in October (AFP)

SREBRENICA: The July 1995 massacre of some 7,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb fighters near the UN-designated safe haven of Srebrenica is the worst atrocity of its kind in Europe since the end of World War II. Since the incident, the name Srebrenica has become practically synonomous with ethnic cleansing....(more)

See also:

Ten Years After Srebrenica

Coming To Grips With The UN's Failure At Srebrenica

Child Of Srebrenica Returns Home For Anniversary Of Massacre

The Film That Shook Belgrade