Serbia-Montenegro pledges to fulfill commitment to int'l tribunal

The government Serbia-Montenegro has been determined to fulfill all its commitments to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said a senior official here Friday.

During a speech to the parliament, Minister of Human Rights and Minorities of Serbia-Montenegro Rasim Ljajic said his country will arrest and send war crimes suspect, former commander of Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic to The Hague the moment he is found on the soil.

But he added that all rumors saying that Mladic has been hiding somewhere in Serbia and Montenegro are incorrect, local media of Serbia-Montenegro reported.

Mladic is wanted by the Netherlands-based international tribunal, which has indicted him for atrocities in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

Top UN War Crimes Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had repeatedly accused Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina's armies of sheltering and protecting Mladic.

Mladic's arrest and extradition to The Hague have also been pressed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union.

The war in Bosnia was the bloodiest in a series of conflicts triggered by the breakup of Yugoslavia.

After the ouster of the then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and his subsequent extradition to the UN tribunal, Serbia has been under immense pressure to hand over all Serb suspects. More than a dozen surrendered voluntarily in recent months, but a few more remained at large.

Source: Xinhua