YU, SERBIAN OFFICIALS CLAIM THEY DON'T KNOW MLADIC'S WHEREABOUTS

BELGRADE, Nov 28 (Hina) - Yugoslav and Serbian officials either do not know the whereabouts of General Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war crimes, or claim they believe Mladic is not in Yugoslavia. Some do not wish to comment on the statement by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla del Ponte, that Mladic is in Yugoslavia and under the protection of the Yugoslav army (VJ). "I am not commenting on that," VJ chief-of-staff Nebojsa Pavkovic told journalists in Nis after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart, General Miha Mihov. Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said Wednesday he was not familiar with the fact that General Mladic was in Yugoslavia, and that not one Yugoslav institution had made a decision to protect and hide the accused. Serbian Vice-Premier Momcilo Perisic said he did not know whether the former Bosnian Serb commander was protected by the Yugoslav Army. Perisic, a Serbian government member in charge of national security, was until three years ago VJ chief-of-staff during the Milosevic regime. Perisic, who has been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison in Croatia for war crimes in Zadar in 1991, said at a press conference in Belgrade cooperation with the Hague Tribunal was a "precondition for Yugoslavia's entrance into Partnership for Peace, and Yugoslavia should cooperate with the Tribunal," but at the same time criticised the Tribunal for selective trials. The speaker of the lower house of the Yugoslav parliament, Dragoljub Micunovic, told reporters in Belgrade he believed the information by the state institutions that Ratko Mladic was not in Yugoslavia. He said that state officials had discussed declaring all persons who were not Yugoslav nationals and were wanted by the Hague Tribunal personae non grata or handing them over to the ICTY if they were arrested. (hina) np sb