Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro – Serb security officials insisted Wednesday that talks were underway for the surrender of top war-crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic, despite denials by the government and the chief U.N. war-crimes prosecutor.
Mladic is wanted on genocide charges for allegedly orchestrating Europe’s worst carnage since World War II – the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in 1995 – and for other crimes during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
U.N. war-crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said in The Hague, Netherlands, that Mladic was in Serbia “within reach” of authorities but “remains at large.”
Serbian authorities have made contact with Mladic, a senior security official, close to the operation to capture him, told The Associated Press.
The official said “a direct line of communication” has been established with the wartime Bosnian Serb general.
“If he does not surrender, we’ll do everything possible to hand him over” to the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.
But the government said there had been no such operation about a surrender.
Belgrade authorities have been under immense international pressure to arrest Mladic by the end of February or face possible suspension of talks on establishing closer ties with the European Union.
