Unanswered Questions: The Bosnian War Fugitive's 'Arrest'

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OLEG STJEPANOVIC / AP

Bosnian-Serb General Ratko Mladic in 1995

General Ratko Mladic, one of world's most wanted fugitives, was arrested this week in Serbia after succesfully evading justice for more than ten years. Unfortunately for Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Mladic's arrest happened only in news flashes and newspaper headlines around the world. In real life, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army indicted for reckless bombardment of Sarajevo and the slaughter of at least 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, remains as elusive as ever — despite mounting pressure on the Serbian government to deliver him to the Hague, or face international isolation and even sanctions. The rampant speculation raised a number of questions about what is actually going on in that ever murky part of the world, the Balkans.

Why would the arrest be such a big deal?

For the past several months, the failure to arrest Mladic has been a source of growing headaches for Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his government. Serbia is scheduled to start talks about joining the European Union in early April, but Brussels has already told Belgrade that the talks will be suspended, probably for a very long period, unless the general is apprehended within the next two or three weeks. Also, the failure to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal is likely to complicate negotiations over the future status of Kosovo, which opened last week in Vienna. Serbia desperately wants to keep some sovereignty over the independence-minded province, which was placed under UN and NATO control after a brief bloody war in 1999. "Entering the talks as a country which harbors war criminals is seriously damaging our position," Serbia and Montenegro's foreign minister Vuk Draskovic admitted in a recent interview.

How did the rumor of the high-profile arrest get started?

The news that Mladic was captured and flown to the Netherlands via a US Air Force base in Bosnia was first launched on Tuesday afternoon by a folksy local television station in the eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina. Soon it was picked up by several media outlets in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and then by major international news agencies and cable television news. The ensuing media frenzy lasted for days despite strong denials of the Serbian government, the Tuzla air base commander, and even Carla Del Ponte, who called for an urgent press conference on Wednesday to state that Mladic is still at large. Even on Friday, some Belgrade newspapers claimed, quoting unidentified security officials, that Mladic was arrested by British special forces in Romania and placed in confinement at a secret location.

Who is behind it?

The latest brouhaha further embarrassed the Serbian government, which accused the opposition of launching the misinformation campaign, thus undermining their honest efforts to catch the general. But the opposition, and some Western observers, blame the government. "They raised this noise to hide the fact that they are not truly hunting Mladic", a Belgrade-based Western diplomat told Time. "So far, we are not impressed by their efforts."

What has Mladic been up to all these years?

The 63-year-old general, who led Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was retired in 1996 and lived quite openly in Belgrade despite an international warrant for his arrest. He was protected by Slobodan Milosevic, the long-time Serbian president who was himself indicted for war crimes in Bosnia and Kosovo. After Milosevic's downfall in 2000, Mladic went underground, although he was reportedly seen at several remote locations in Serbia. Since 2000. Serbian authorities insisted that they had no idea about Mladic's whereabouts, even though they continued to send his pension checks to his family, who still lives in Belgrade. So it was quite an embarrassment last week when a leaked report by Serbian military intelligence agency revealed that the army was actively protecting Mladic until at least 2002.

What about the other big Bosnian war fugitive still at large?

Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime president who is also indicted for war crimes, has almost completely slipped away from the public eye. Karadzic is widely believed to be hiding in the mountains of Bosnia, despite a large Western military presence in the country, and so far all efforts to locate him have proved futile.