Serbia's special and regular police stepped up their hunt for the two remaining fugitive war crimes suspects on Thursday, targeting notably former Bosnian Serbarmy commander General Ratko Mladic.
The police searched for Mladic at five locations Thursday, four of them in Belgrade, including the home of Mladic's son Darko, according to Rasim Ljajic, president of Serbia's national council for cooperation with The Hague tribunal.
"Operations will be taking place over the coming days, and will continue until Ratko Mladic's arrest," said Ljajic, adding that the operation was part of the Action Plan for arresting the remaining fugitives.
Serbian Radical Party (SRS) deputy leader Dragan Todorovic, who attended the day-long search of Darko's home as a witness, told the press that the police seized papers, clothing and any other objects they thought could help in locating Mladic.
The police carried out the search at the instruction of the Belgrade District Court war crimes department, he said.
SRS MPs protested against the search in the parliament, describing it as unjustified pressure on Mladic's family.
The last major search operation for Mladic was carried out at the Vujic factory in Western Serbia on Nov. 10, because the owners were suspected of providing financial support to the Hague fugitives.
Serbian police chief Milorad Veljovic said Thursday that the police are searching every day for Mladic and other fugitive Goran Hadzic in line with Serbia's commitments to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
The police receives and checks a lot of information daily, and some turns out to be untrue, he said, adding that the Serbian police are in constant cooperation with neighboring Bosnian Serb police.
Mladic is wanted by the ICTY for allegedly orchestrating the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim in Srebrenica in 1995 and the years-long siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during Bosnia's 1992-95civil war.
The only other fugitive war crimes suspect indicted by the ICTYis former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.
Mladic's arrest and extradition to the ICTY is the last major obstacle for the European Union approving Serbia's candidacy to membership.
The UN Security Council will consider the regular six-month report on the work of the Hague Tribunal on Dec. 12.
ICTY's Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz is due to notify the EU Council of Ministers about Serbia's cooperation with the Tribunal before presenting his report, which is key to the EU decision on whether to unblock the Interim Trade Agreement and the implementation of a pre-membership agreement with Serbia.
Source:Xinhua
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