"It is well known that 90 percent of persons from (international High Representative) Paddy Ashdown's black list were sitting in the first rows at last December's election convention of the party led by (Serbian Prime Minister) Kostunica, in Belgrade's Sava Centre. It is also true that Hague-based tribunal's indictees are in Serbia. I am sure that they are on the territory of Serbia and Montenegro. I believe that they are most definitely not in the Republic of Srpska, as they would have been found by those who have been searched for them over the past 10 years," Jovanovic said in an interview for the Banja Luka-based 'Nezavisne Novine' daily on Thursday.
Jovanovic said that the conduct of Serbian Prime Minister Vojsilav Kostunica should not surprise anybody as he had claimed during the pre-election campaign that the cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was for him the issue of minor importance.
To corroborate his statements, Jovanovic cited the case of Bosnian Serb Army Lieutenant Ljubisa Beara who only recently surrendered to the ICTY. Jovanovic wondered who had for 10 years protected and harboured the war crimes indictee, accused of the Srebrenica massacre.
"Those who have harboured Beara for ten years, are also harbouring Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic and all other indictees wanted by the ICTY. Beara was not in the Republic of Srpska but he was in a village near Uzice (Serbia)," Jovanovic asserted.
Milorad Dodik, the leader of the opposition Bosnian Serb party called Alliance of the Independent Social Democrats, last Saturday said the Bosnian Serb authorities earlier in October had informed Kostunica of Serbian addresses at which Bosnian Serb war crimes indictees were residing.
Dodik asserted that the authorities in Serbia, notably PM Kostunica, did not want to arrest those persons.
Former Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac also told Thursday's issue of Nezavisne Novine that the current Serbian government and PM Kostunica turned a deaf ear to any question what they would do after they had been given addresses of ICTY indictees. Kortunica had pledged to Socialist Party of Serbia, led by Slobodan Milosevic, who is currently in The Hague on war crimes and genocide trial, that they would neither arrest nor transfer anybody to The Hague.
Former Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic on Wednesday said that the Republic of Srpska President Dragan Cavic had in late October notified Kostunica of nine addresses of the Bosnian Serb indictees staying in Serbia.
Batic was quoted by Nezavisne Novine as saying that that those were tough talks.
"According to information I have, the meeting was tough as people from the Republic of Srpska are aware that their future depends on cooperation with the tribunal, contrary to those in Serbia who do not want to cooperate," Batic told a news conference.