Eurasia Press & News
BELGRADE, Serbia
Rasim Ljajic, the head of Serbia’s national council for co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal, said on Monday (July 27th) that Serbia is co-operating closely with foreign intelligence services in the hunt for former Bosnian Serbs’ wartime commander Ratko Mladic, and that this co-operation will net results soon. “It is impossible that he gets away from many domestic and foreign intelligence officers,” Ljajic said quoted by Reuters. He added the most recent operation was conducted a week ago. The Netherlands is refusing to allow the implementation of Serbia’s pre-membership agreement with the EU — signed in April 2008 — until Mladic is in custody.
In other news Monday, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic filed an appeal at The Hague war crimes tribunal demanding that his claims about a secret agreement he allegedly struck years ago with former US envoy Richard Holbrooke be accepted. He insists that when he was at the helm of Republika Srpska, Holbrooke persuaded him to withdraw from politics in exchange for protection against criminal prosecution at The Hague. Earlier this month, the tribunal rejected Karadzic’s request to drop all charges against him due to the existence of the alleged deal. Holbrooke insists it never happened.
