BELGRADE, Nov 25 (Hina) - General Ratko Mladic is in Serbia, as is his file, and rumours about a secret operation to take him out of the country are only aimed at deceiving the public, the spokeswoman for the chief prosecutor of the
UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Florence Hartmann, said in an interview with the Belgrade-based "Blic" daily on Tuesday.
BELGRADE, Nov 25 (Hina) - General Ratko Mladic is in Serbia, as is
his file, and rumours about a secret operation to take him out of the
country are only aimed at deceiving the public, the spokeswoman for
the chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, Florence Hartmann, said in an interview with the
Belgrade-based "Blic" daily on Tuesday. #L#
"This is the same situation as in Croatia, where they are trying to
make us believe that Gotovina is not there, and we know that he is.
Everybody is making up stories to avoid obligations. General Mladic
is in Serbia, where else would it be better for him!? Nobody is even
trying to arrest him there," Hartmann said, adding that the
prosecution still expected from Belgrade Mladic's file, which she
believes contains evidence of "his financial connections with
Belgrade".
"However, Mladic's file is treated as a state secret and Goran
Svilanovic is refusing to deliver it, as all other documents
regarding the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, so they could
not be used in the lawsuit that Croatia and Bosnia filed against the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," Hartmann said.
There can be no negotiations between the tribunal and the
authorities in Belgrade about the case of four indicted army and
police generals being tried by domestic courts, Hartmann said
resolutely.
"What are you talking about?! You have a mass grave closer to
downtown Belgrade than the airport and you are doing nothing about
it". She went on to say: "Have you convicted anyone? Do you have the
culprits?", and added that the government did not even want to
arrest the generals, but was talking about putting them on trial.
"There can be no negotiating with the tribunal! Negotiations are
not possible. We are talking about law and your government has no
other choice but to respect it," she said.
She added that there were no conflicts between the US
administration and (Chief Prosecutor) Carla Del Ponte, because it
is "difficult even to consider peace in the Balkans as long as war
criminals like Mladic, Karadzic and Gotovina are at large". She
added that the US had offered five million dollars for their arrest,
and that this fact was intentionally withheld from the public.
(hina) rml sb