MIKE CORDER
THE HAGUE
Outgoing Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has given Belgrade an ultimatum: hand over fugitive General Ratko Mladic by Monday, or she will block Serbia's bid to join the EU.
EU officials initialled a pre-membership deal with Serbia last month, saying it was satisfied with Belgrade's co-operation with the tribunal. Del Ponte, however, says a formal signing of the agreement hinges on full co-operation.
"For me, it means Mladic," she said yesterday. "Mladic in The Hague."
She said that while visiting Belgrade on Monday, she told Serbian leaders: "I give you some days more, but by Monday, Mladic must be in The Hague. Otherwise it will be a negative assessment about co-operation."
Del Ponte presents her final report on Monday to the UN Security Council, which set up the tribunal in 1993 in response to widespread atrocities in the Balkan wars.
Her reports carry significant weight at the EU and a negative assessment would make it politically hard for member states to put Serbia on the road to full membership.
The former Swiss attorney general leaves the court at the end of this month after more than eight years, to be her country's envoy to Argentina.
During her tenure, 91 suspects were transferred to the court and 63 were indicted.
However, she conceded that the failure to get her hands on key fugitives Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was a disappointment. The pair, after former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, "were the most responsible for the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed during the conflict in Bosnia", she said.
Karadzic and Mladic are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for allegedly orchestrating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo.-AP
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