Serbia urged to make more arrests

SERBIA:Senior UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte urged Serbia yesterday to prove its commitment to international obligations by following last week's capture of ex-Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir with the swift arrest of his wartime chief, Ratko Mladic.

Ms del Ponte met Serb leaders to press for the capture of Gen Mladic, along with the 1992-5 president of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, and three other war crimes suspects, as Gen Tolimir made his first court appearance at The Hague.

A statement from prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said he told Ms del Ponte that Serbia had the "political will and determination" to catch the fugitives "as soon as possible", after she had urged Belgrade to show "full co-operation" with the tribunal.

Immediately after Gen Tolimir's arrest last Thursday on the border between Serbia and the Serb-run part of Bosnia, EU officials said they would restart talks on closer ties with Belgrade. They insisted, however, that a deal laying the foundations for ultimate EU membership would not be signed until all war crimes suspects were caught. Brussels said the timing of talks would be decided after Ms del Ponte delivered a report on her visit.

In The Hague, Gen Tolimir refused to enter a plea to charges of genocide for his role in helping Gen Mladic plan and carry out the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the so-called UN safe haven of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Gen Tolimir was reported to have been arrested in Bosnia, very close to Srebrenica, but rumours are rife that he was actually caught in Serbia and quickly taken to Bosnia, so as not to antagonise or boost support for Serbia's powerful ultra-nationalists.

Of the fugitives, Gen Mladic is believed to be in Serbia, along with former Croatian Serb official Goran Hadzic; Mr Karadzic and former aide Stojan Zupljanin are thought to be in Bosnia, while ex-police commander Vlastimir Djordjevic is thought to be in Russia.

Some 200 Bosnian Muslim women marched to the Dutch prime minister's office yesterday to begin a drive by 6,000 relatives of Srebrenica victims to force the Netherlands and UN to accept responsibility for failing to prevent the massacre.

They accuse Dutch and UN officials of refusing to provide air support when Dutch troops protecting Srebrenica under a UN mandate were overrun by Gen Mladic's much larger forces.

"The goal is not financial for the mothers and other survivors: it's about satisfaction," said lawyer Marco Gerritsen. "Unfortunately the UN and the Dutch state are not willing to take their responsibility - they do not even want to talk about it."