Mladic's wife accuses Serb officials of harassment to force surrender]

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site,
go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

Mladic's wife accuses Serb officials of harassment to force surrender
· Family of wanted general complain of intimidation · EU talks
in jeopardy if suspect not handed over
Ian Traynor in Zagreb
Friday April 07 2006
The Guardian


The wife of Europe's most wanted man, the Serbian genocide suspect Ratko
Mladic, said yesterday that her family was being hounded by the Serbian
security services and that several family members had been arrested to
encourage Mladic's surrender.

The European Union has given Serbia until the end of the month to arrest
and extradite Mladic to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. A tribunal
spokesman said yesterday that the Serbian prime minister, Vojislav
Kostunica, had promised to deliver Mladic by the deadline.

Bosa Mladic, the general's wife, said two of her brothers and another two
relatives had been arrested, and her son's company had been raided by the
Serbian tax police in what she alleged was a campaign of intimidation
aimed at securing her husband's arrest.

Mladic was a Bosnian Serb commander and is wanted mainly on genocide
charges for the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim males in Srebrenica in July
1995.

"I am in shock. I can't believe the pressure being put on us," Mrs Mladic
told the Belgrade newspaper, Kurir.

On Wednesday, leaders of the extreme nationalist and popular Radical party
in Belgrade accused the Serbian authorities of being responsible for
"brutal beatings and arrests" of members of the Mladic family. Yesterday,
the party leader, Tomislav Nikolic, called on Mladic to kill himself
rather than surrender.

The allegations of a concerted campaign of intimidation of the Mladic
family suggest that the Serbian government may be getting serious about
arresting the general, a hero to Serbian nationalists and a mass murderer
to the Muslims of Bosnia.

The allegations echo events in the run-up to last year's arrest of
Croatia's most-wanted war crimes suspect, Ante Gotovina, who was held in
the Canary Islands and is awaiting trial in The Hague. Before his capture,
the Croatian security services also employed dirty tricks against his
family to secure his arrest, according to informed diplomats. The tactics
worked, they said.

Gotovina had been protected by the Croatian government and security
services for years until he became a liability and the biggest impediment
to Croatia's integration with the EU. Serbia has the same predicament with
Mladic.

Last summer, the wife of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb political
leader also wanted on genocide charges, called on her husband to give
himself up because of the pressure on his family. "Our family is under
constant pressure from all over. Our life and existence is jeopardised,"
said Ljiljana Karadzic. "I'm begging you to make this decision ... It will
be your sacrifice for us, for the sake of your family."

Last October, after a recommendation from Carla del Ponte, the chief
prosecutor at The Hague tribunal, the EU agreed to membership talks with
Croatia. Gotovina was arrested a few weeks later. Last week Ms Del Ponte
gave a positive verdict on Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal which
enabled the EU to go ahead with talks with Belgrade on closer ties. The
Serbs are said to have promised Ms Del Ponte access to security files that
it has denied for years. The EU has extended a deadline for Mladic's
arrest until the end of the month and has threatened to break off
negotiations if the deadline is missed.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited