Raffi Gregorian, a U.S. administrator in Bosnia, said the two most wanted war crimes suspects from the Bosnia wars, Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, are within reach of Serbian officials. Speaking to a Bosnian television station Monday evening, Gregorian said the Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica could have the two arrested with a single phone call. “Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica can solve the issue of their arrest with just one phone call,” Gregorian said.
Kostunica, who is traveling to the United Nations headquarters in New York to meet the Security Council for discussions on Kosovo, said the Serbian government has no knowledge of the whereabouts of Karadzic or Mladic. He stated also that security officials were doing all they could to find the fugitives.
The U.S. government offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to the capture of Karadzic and Mladic, as well as a top Bosnian Serb military official, Stojan Zupljanin, and Goran Hadzic, a political leader suspected of committing war crimes in Croatia. Karadzic and Mladic have been on the lam for 11 years and international observers believe the two are in hiding in the region with the aid of many current and former officials.
The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague indicted Karadzic and Mladic on war crimes, including genocide, and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. They are also suspected of orchestrating the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, a U.N. safe zone, in which nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed at the hands of Serbian military personnel.
Both men are suspected of hiding in Serbia, and authorities recently searched Karadzic's home and the homes of family members. In June, the chief war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations Carla del Ponte said the European Union should not proceed on negotiations with Serbia until all war crimes suspects have been arrested. Del Ponte has stated that, despite positive assessments by the EU, Serbia should not be perceived as meeting its full obligations to join the European community.
“We don't have Karadzic and Mladic in custody ‚ that is a failure. If they are not arrested and tried by the tribunal that will be the biggest failure of the international community," Del Ponte said. Observers in June suspected the two would face the war crimes tribunal by summers end.
