Eurasia Press & News
FM Vuk Jeremić says he believes that the chief Hague prosecutor will confirm Serbia’s full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal in his report to the UN SC.
He said that Serbian officials will have “detailed meetings” with Serge Brammertz, who is due here on Nov. 4 for a working visit, preparing his report to the UN in early December.
“It is our estimate that at this moment we are achieving full cooperation with the tribunal and I do not think there is anything more that could be done at this point, than is being done,” said the Serbian foreign minister.
His statement comes despite the fact that both former military leader of Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladić and political leader of Croatian Serbs Goran Hadžić, indicted by the Hague-based court, have not been arrested.
Cooperation with the tribunal has been put as the key issue for unblocking the interim trade deal that is part of the SAA – and the ratification of the SAA itself.
Jeremić said that he hoped that Brammertz would use “precisely that statement, that Belgrade is fully cooperating”, as he submits his regular report.
“At this point we are truly doing everything to make sure than no Hague indictee is free. In other words, our full cooperation is seen in the fact there is nothing else that could be done, that is not being done now.”
The foreign minister of the country that is blocking Belgrade’s EU integration ambition with the Hague cooperation condition, Maxime Verhagen, is also due to arrive in Serbia by the end of the year.
Jeremić said that the stance that the interim trade agreement “cannot be applied bilaterally” – Serbia is already implementing it unilaterally – until Mladić and Hadžić are behind bars “could be softened by the Brammertz report, which is expected to be positive”.
He added he expects that “circumstances will be right by the end of this year so that we are not the first to have our candidate status application rejected when we submit it”.
