'No Mladic, no membership'

Sir, I cannot see the draw for the people of Serbia to come into the 
vipers nest. After all,  the countries which are blackmailing Serbia 
over a Bosnian Serb, bombed the country and destroyed much of it's 
civilian facilities and infrastracture in 78 days of hell in 1999. 
There has been nothing but pressure and blackmail since that year of 
infamy. Why would anyone think for a moment that the Serbs have a 
place with the sowers of death and destruction is beyond me.
Sincerely, B. Perry
London

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2163199,00.html


Times Online
May 03, 2006


EU tells Serbia: 'No Mladic, no membership'
By Simon Freeman and agencies

The European Union today suspended membership talks with Serbia in punishment for the country's failure to deliver the fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to a UN tribunal.

A deadline for the transfer of the Bosnian Serb general, wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, into the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague expired at the end of April.
Olli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, issued a statement today confirming that talks over Belgrade's possible integration into the EU had been frozen.
"It is disappointing that Belgrade has been unable to locate, arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic to the Hague. The Commission therefore has to call off the negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
"Serbia must show that nobody is above the law and that anybody indicted for serious crimes will face justice," he said after a meeting with Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the tribunal.
The EU's decision to carry out its long-standing threat will intensify the pressure within Serbia to hand over General Mladic, 64, who many Serbs still regard as a war hero, but whose continued freedom has rendered the country a hostage.
The renegade general has evaded capture since 1995, and is generally believed to be living under the protection of senior military and political figures within Serbia.
Suspension of the tentative talks will be seen as a hugely punishing sanction for the country which is struggling to rebuild its economy after a decade of civil war.
Vojisclav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, has coerced or bribed previous indictees into giving themselves up but General Mladic is refusing to co-operate, aware that his arrest could fatally destabilise the coalition government.
There was intense excitement on February 21 this year when television reports suggested that General Mladic, one of Europe's most wanted men, had been arrested.
Despite several days of headlines and insider reports that he had finally been captured, the reports - which came a few days before an earlier EU deadline - transpired to be without foundation.
There has been a fresh wave of rumours of his impending capture in the past few weeks, most recently it was suggested that Mladic had been tracked down by a team of agents from MI6 and the CIA and would be arrested on May 1.
General Mladic led the Bosnian Serb forces to commit many of the atrocities and massacres which characterised the Bosnian war.
He is chiefly associated with the four-year siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 attack on Srebenica - in which at least 8,000 Mulsim men and boys were massacred - considered the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War.
The next round of talks, the first stepping stone towards eventual EU membership, had been due on May 11. They have now been postponed indefinitely.