NOTORIOUS Serbian warlord Ratko Mladic accused of the genocide of
8,000 people tonight appeared in front of a war crimes judge just
hours after he was captured following 16 years on the run.
The brutish army general has been wanted since 1995 after leading the Bosnian
Serb army during the Balkan Wars.
Mladic is accused of war crimes including orchestrating the slaughter of
thousands of Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
The genocide alleged to be attempted “ethnic cleansing”
was the worst European massacre since World War Two.
But tonight he was in a Belgrade court, flanked by Serbian police, as
authorities began their legal bid to extradite him to the war crimes
tribunal in The Hague.
Mladic, dressed in a blue jacket and a baseball cap, walked into the courtroom
with difficulty, looking frail. He could be heard on state TV saying “good
day” to people in the court.
The judge is to verify Mladic’s identity and present him with the indictment
against him issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY).
It will then have to decide whether or not to remand him in custody while the
court decides if he can be extradited.
That decision can be appealed and the whole process is expected to take up to
seven working days.
Serbian president Boris Tadic earlier confirmed Mladic had at last been picked
up by security forces, saying it closed a chapter in the country’s history.
Secretary William Hague welcomed news of his arrest as “a historic moment” and
said it was right that he should now face international justice.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who is at the G8 summit in France, said: “We
should remember why it is that we are pursuing this man and why he is
pursued by the international tribunal in The Hague.
“He is accused of the most appalling war crimes, both in terms of what
happened in Srebrenica but also in Sarajevo. There is a very good reason why
the long arm of international law had been looking for him for so long.”
Mr Hague said: “The arrest of Ratko Mladic is a historic moment for a region
that was torn apart by the appalling wars of the 1990s.
“Ratko Mladic stands accused of terrible crimes committed in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and it is right that he will now be brought to face
international justice.
“Today our thoughts are with the relatives of those killed during the siege of
Sarajevo and genocide in Srebrenica.
“We congratulate the Serbian authorities on this arrest, which is evidence of
the Serbian government’s commitment to co-operation with the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
“We now look forward to the rapid transfer of Ratko Mladic to The Hague so
that the charges against him can be heard in an international court of law.
Our sympathies are with all those who lost loved ones during those
conflicts.
“Today should mark the beginning of a new chapter for the countries of Western
Balkans.”
The Srebrenica genocide was the horrific culmination of a
three-and-a-half-year conflict in which the general pounded the city of
Sarajevo daily with the artillery of his Bosnian Serb army, killing 10,000
people.
The alleged goal was “ethnic cleansing” the forcible
expulsion of Bosnian Muslims, Croats and other non-Serbs to clear Bosnian
lands for a Greater Serbia.
The UN War Crimes tribunal said it was a conspiracy in which he was aided and
armed by former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, together with Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
Serbian state TV reported earlier today that a man believed to be Mladic had
been arrested living under another name in the country.
Reports in the Croatian media claimed that Serbian police had confirmed his
identity through DNA analysis.
Colonel Bob Stewart, who commanded UN troops in Bosnia in 1992/93 and is now a
Conservative MP, said today: “It is very, very important that this man
Mladic is brought to The Hague quickly, the trial starts quickly, the trial
is expeditious in dealing with the matter and, actually, at the end of it
justice prevails.
“I saw the result of what this man did. I saw murdered men, women and
children. I saw what was happening in Srebrenica.”
The arrest came as EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton was due in Serbia
to talk about its application for membership.
Col Stewart said that “elements of the Serb security service will have known
exactly where Mladic was”, but said that previously the political will to
arrest him was lacking.
“Serbia has been told unless you give up the war criminals that have been
indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague there is no chance of you
becoming a member of the EU,” said Col Stewart.
“Serbia wants to be a member of the EU, so Serbia has said, right, we will
have to dine with a long spoon and find Mladic. They’ve known where he’s
been for a long time and now they’ve got round to doing it.”