Mladic still in Serbia, says UN

SERBIA: Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte dismissed persistent media reports yesterday that Gen Ratko Mladic had been caught or was about to surrender.

Ms del Ponte insisted that the former Bosnian Serb commander was still hiding in Serbia, and urged EU officials to push hard for his arrest before they meet to discuss relations with Belgrade early next week.

Newspapers and broadcast media across Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia continued to report Gen Mladic's imminent capture, however, saying he was negotiating his surrender at a monastery, a hunting lodge, or an underground military missile base.

"The false rumours spread yesterday from Belgrade about the arrest of Mladic have absolutely no basis whatsoever," Ms del Ponte said.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn is due to report to EU foreign ministers next Monday or Tuesday on whether Serbia is co-operating with the UN war crimes tribunal. He has said association talks will be frozen if Gen Mladic is not caught.

"I need now stronger support of the European Union to have Mladic in The Hague very soon. Clear deadlines with clear sanctions will produce early results," Ms del Ponte said, denouncing Belgrade for doing little to catch a man regarded as a war hero by many Serbs.

"Ratko Mladic is in Serbia," she said. "There is no doubt about this. He has been there since 1998. During all this time he has been and remains within reach of the Serbian authorities."

Serb officials also played down talk of the imminent capture of a man accused of some of the worst atrocities of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Government spokesman Srdjan Djuric said "such fabrications are not only totally frivolous but really damaging" to Belgrade's relations with the UN court and Brussels.

Belgrade newspaper Kurir quoted a security agency source as saying official denials were part of a cover-up. "The government spokesman doesn't dare confirm it because there's a fear of unrest in Belgrade," he said. "But it is completely true that Mladic has been arrested."