Serbia receives treaty nod ahead of EU meeting
ELITSA VUCHEVA
11.09.2008 @ 09:23 CET
UN prosecutor Serge Brammertz on Wednesday (10 September) expressed "careful optimism" that Serbia will soon find two remaining war crimes suspects - a pre-condition for Belgrade to be allowed closer to the EU.
"Allow me to express careful optimism that the search for remaining fugitives Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic will be successful," Mr Brammertz was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency during his visit to Belgrade.
Top fugitive Ratko Mladic (l) is still at large (Photo: wikipedia)
He met the team charged with tracking down former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic and former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic, both of whom face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but still remain at large.
Full co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal - notably by capturing the two war crimes suspects - is a key condition before Belgrade is allowed closer ties with the EU.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana expressed hopes for at least a partial unfreezing of a pre-accession deal signed with Belgrade earlier this year.
"I hope very much by the 15th of this month we will be able to unblock the situation of the interim agreement," Mr Solana told MEPs from the foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, referring to a meeting of EU foreign ministers on 15 September.
The European Commission has also on several occasions called for member states to implement at least the trade-related parts of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) following Serbia's arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in July.
The EU decided in April to sign the SAA with Serbia in a bid to send a political message to the country, which was at the time set to hold elections widely seen as decisive for its EU future.
But at the insistence of the Netherlands and Belgium, EU member states decided they would refrain from implementing the document until Belgrade's co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague was judged to be sufficient.
While most EU member states support a softer line and would favour partial implementation of the SAA following Mr Karadzic's arrest, the Netherlands in particular insists that Serbia capture Mr Mladic first.
As a consequence, the EU has so far stopped short of rewarding Serbia for Mr Karadzic's arrest other than by issuing a statement "encouraging the Serbian government to continue along that path."
For its part, the Serbian parliament ratified the SAA on Tuesday by a significant majority - 140 to 28 votes - while Serb politicians have made no secret of their optimism about the upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting on Monday.
