The president of the Hague war crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia today ordered Serbia to deliver top fugitive Ratko Mladic by the end of this year.
The ex-Bosnian Serb general is wanted for the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.
The seven-week deadline was issued on a visit to Belgrade by United Nations war crimes tribunal president Theodor Meron, tightening the screws on Serbia as it faces talks that could lead to the loss of its Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo, which has been under UN control for the past six years.
"Unless Mladic is in The Hague by a certain deadline, we will be excommunicated from Euro-Atlantic integration. If we do not fulfil this obligation by the end of this year, the citizens of this country will see some very difficult moments," Defence Minister Zoran Stankovic quoted Mr Meron as saying, on Serbian state television.
Cooperation with The Hague is vital to Serbia's bids to become a member of NATO and the European Union in the next decade, closing a 15-year chapter of war and sanctions instigated by former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial at the tribunal for genocide.
The tribunal's certification that Belgrade is sincerely committed to Mladic's arrest has in the past been central to EU and NATO assessment of its worthiness to progress in these membership bids, which are the country's top priority.
Mr Meron told reporters after talks with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica that "the international community is truly impatient about the endless delays in the fulfilment by Serbia of its remaining international obligations."
"This is especially so regarding failure to deliver Ratko Mladic to the (tribunal) and the lack of visible and full support for efforts to capture and transfer Radovan Karadzic and other fugitives who are within reach of the authorities in Belgrade," Mr Meron added. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Karadzic was Mladic's boss.
Serbian media is speculating that a last-gasp effort may be under way to arrest the former Bosnian Serb Army commander or persuade him to surrender to The Hague.
Serbia has delivered 13 suspects to The Hague in the past year, winning praise from the tribunal and major powers. It got a break in the unrelenting pressure it has faced on the issue last month, when the European Union decided to start talks with Belgrade leading to eventual membership, even though Mladic is still at large.
Mladic and former "president" Karadzic are both indicted for genocide in the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre. Karadzic is believed to be hiding somewhere in Bosnia or his native Montenegro. Mladic is rumoured to be somewhere in Serbia, possibly being protected by renegade elements in the Serbian military or intelligence apparatus.
