?ARAJEVO, April 15 (Hina) - Serbia-Montenegro Deputy Defence Minister Vukasin Maras said on Thursday that Ratko Mladic, who is wanted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was not in Serbia-Montenegro, and labelled as unfair the
pressure the international community was putting on Belgrade, whose goal he added was to arrest the former Bosnian Serb military leader.
?ARAJEVO, April 15 (Hina) - Serbia-Montenegro Deputy Defence Minister
Vukasin Maras said on Thursday that Ratko Mladic, who is wanted by the
war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was not in Serbia-Montenegro, and
labelled as unfair the pressure the international community was
putting on Belgrade, whose goal he added was to arrest the former
Bosnian Serb military leader.#L#
There is no reliable evidence at all that Mladic is inside
Serbia-Montenegro, Maras told reporters in Sarajevo, where he attended
a conference of South Eastern Europe's defence ministers.
Maras said Serbia-Montenegro authorities were ready at any moment to
arrest and extradite Mladic if he was traced.
Serbia-Montenegro's army, police and intelligence services have not
yet been able to locate Mladic, and if any international organisation
has any information as to his whereabouts measures will be taken to
arrest him, Maras said, adding that his country "enjoys very good
cooperation" with the Hague tribunal.
"Is there better proof than the fact that two former presidents, one
party president and several generals are in the custody of the the
Hague tribunal?"
Maras said this gave his government sufficient reason to expect to be
invited to join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme at the
Alliance's summit in Istanbul in June.
(Hina) ha sb