BELGRADE, July 14 (Hina) - Serbia-Montenegro could join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme immediately after Bosnian Serb Ratko Mladic is extradited to the Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Bruce Jackson,
president of the U.S. NGO Project on Transitional Democracies and chairman of the U.S. Committee on NATO, said in Belgrade on Monday.
BELGRADE, July 14 (Hina) - Serbia-Montenegro could join NATO's
Partnership for Peace programme immediately after Bosnian Serb
Ratko Mladic is extradited to the Hague war crimes tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia, Bruce Jackson, president of the U.S. NGO Project
on Transitional Democracies and chairman of the U.S. Committee on
NATO, said in Belgrade on Monday. #L#
By not extraditing Mladic, Serbia-Montenegro is wasting time for
Euro-Atlantic integration because Europe's doors will not be open
all the time, Jackson told reporters. If it handed over Mladic, the
country would secure conditions to join the NATO programme at a May
2004 summit, he added.
Over his three-day trip to Belgrade, Jackson met with a number of
state officials. He said he told them either Mladic had to go to The
Hague or a picture proving he was somewhere else had to be found. It
is very hard to believe that the authorities have no knowledge as to
Mladic's whereabouts, said Jackson.
As for the non-extradition of Americans to the International
Criminal Court, he said this issue had been exaggerated. His advice
to Serbia-Montenegro was to let its conscience be its guide in
deciding whether to sign a deal to that effect. Washington and
Brussels should not exert pressure on the young democracies in the
Balkans on account of this issue, he said.
(hina) ha