VARIOUS: Belgrade will be blocked from closer ties with NATO unless war crimes fugitives Mladic and Karadzic are arrested, says senior vsiting US diplomat

Record ID: 695065

  • Title: VARIOUS: Belgrade will be blocked from closer ties with NATO unless war crimes fugitives Mladic and Karadzic are arrested, says senior vsiting US diplomat
  • Date: 15th October 2005
  • Summary: (BN15) BELGRADE, SERBIAMONTENEGRO (OCTOBER 14, 2005) (REUTERS) PHOTO OP OF BURNS WITH SERBIAMONTENEGRO FOREIGN MINISTER VUK DRASKOVIC, SHAKING HANDS (2 SHOTS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***)
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA32P2U2ZMSVWAGW7WX94H19VFL
  • Story Text: During a visit to Belgrade, a senior U.S. diplomat on Friday (October 14) expressed Washington's disappointment that Bosnian-Serbian war crimes fugitives, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were not in the dock in the Hague.
    At the end of his Balkans tour Under-Secretary Nicholas Burns, said that Belgrade would be blocked from closer ties with NATO and the EU if the former Bosnian Serb leader and his army chief are not in the Hague soon to answer for their crimes committed in the 1990s. "I have been saying now for a solid week that the United States will not support Serbia for membership in the Partnership for Piece and NATO until Mladic is arrested. And that is our policy and it is not going to change," Burns said. In a distinctly different tone than in June, when he was last in Belgrade announcing U.S. aid resumption to Serbia, Burns said the country would now be judged on action and not words. He urged Belgrade leaders to step up public calls for Mladic and Karadzic to surrender. Burns held meetings with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic.
    After his meeting with the U.S. official, Serbian Prime has shown it was ready to co-operate with the Hague and would fulfil its obligations to the end. Serbias compliance with the United Nations war crimes court so far this year, with over a dozen fugitives sent to The Hague, has earned it the start of talks on first formal ties with the European Union earlier this month. But the arrest of Mladic and Karadzic will be an obstacle to the signing of an agreement with the EU.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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