The great hunt for Ratko Mladic
Daniel McGrory and Nick Hawton
Times Online, UK
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The rumour mill in Belgrade went into overdrive yesterday amid reports that Europe’s most wanted man had been captured.
Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb general sought by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was variously reported to have been captured, surrounded, or on the point of a negotiated surrender in return for cash for his family.
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See Also:
Sees laughter on a summer's day
Serb media ignore denial, say Mladic handover near
Mladic fate a mystery as Serbia faces EU axe
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But, as night fell, the initial excited reports pouring out of Serbian television stations gave way to a flurry of denials. “The news about Ratko Mladic is not correct,” Srdjan Djuric, the government spokesman in Belgrade, said.
British officials confirmed that General Mladic was still at large, but said that there was growing international pressure on Belgrade to secure his arrest.
The 62-year-old general, who is accused of genocide and other war crimes, commanded the Bosnian Serb Army during successive civil wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He is charged with perpetrating the worst war crimes in Europe since the Second World War.
Speculation about an imminent arrest has been prompted in part by pressure from the European Union, which has warned Serbia and Montenegro that it will halt membership negotiations by next Tuesday if General Mladic is not in custody.
Daniel McGrory and Nick Hawton
Times Online, UK
_____________
The rumour mill in Belgrade went into overdrive yesterday amid reports that Europe’s most wanted man had been captured.
Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb general sought by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was variously reported to have been captured, surrounded, or on the point of a negotiated surrender in return for cash for his family.
___________________
See Also:
Sees laughter on a summer's day
Serb media ignore denial, say Mladic handover near
Mladic fate a mystery as Serbia faces EU axe
____________________
But, as night fell, the initial excited reports pouring out of Serbian television stations gave way to a flurry of denials. “The news about Ratko Mladic is not correct,” Srdjan Djuric, the government spokesman in Belgrade, said.
British officials confirmed that General Mladic was still at large, but said that there was growing international pressure on Belgrade to secure his arrest.
The 62-year-old general, who is accused of genocide and other war crimes, commanded the Bosnian Serb Army during successive civil wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He is charged with perpetrating the worst war crimes in Europe since the Second World War.
Speculation about an imminent arrest has been prompted in part by pressure from the European Union, which has warned Serbia and Montenegro that it will halt membership negotiations by next Tuesday if General Mladic is not in custody.
