Brammertz : No reasons to believe that Mladic is not in Serbia

Belgrade, May, 18. 2010 (Serbia Today) - Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz has repeated  during his visit to Belgrade that the most important issue remains the arrest of Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić. Brammertz also announced that based on the information he was given he had no reason to believe former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladić was outside of Serbia. He added that the Prosecution is conducting a detailed analysis of why Mladić still has not been arrested. “My associates share this impression, Brammertz said after  meetings with President of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal Rasim Ljajić and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković.  Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor did not wish to give a precise assessment of Serbia’s cooperation but said that it was a continuous process and that there were two more weeks before his new report is due to be submitted to the UN Security Council. Brammertz also met with representatives of Serbian services which are searching for the Hague fugitives. He talked to members of the action team and its operatives, directors of the Security-Information Agency (BIA) and Military Security Agency (VBA) for several hours.  EU ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia depends on the cooperation assessment that will find its way into Brammertz’s new report.  Brammertz announced that the indictment against Mladić will be amended with additional charges.  Brammertz said that there can be no alternative to the arrest of Mladić and Goran Hadžić and that he expects Serbian authorities to take practical measures to bring them to justice and the politicians to support their efforts.  Commenting on the declaration condemning the crime in Srebrenica passed in the Serbian parliament, Brammertz said he will not mention the Serbian government's gesture in his next report to the UN Security Council which is due in June.  “This is not something I will mention in the cooperation report, because it is a political statement. Of course it is a step in the right direction, but I hope it was taken for the benefit of Serbia and its people and not of the Hague Tribunal,” Brammertz said.