LOCAL PRESS
Croatia blocks opening of Chapter 26 in Serbia’s accession talks, Vucic in protest returns to Belgrade (RTS, TV Prva)
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will not attend the intergovernmental conference of the European Union and Serbia in Brussels on Tuesday, because Croatia has blocked the opening of the Chapter 26 relating to culture and education, Serbia’s media reported on Monday evening. New chapters in the accession talks of Serbia and the EU should be open at the intergovernmental conference on Tuesday, and Belgrade hoped until the last moment that in addition to the chapters 5 (public procurement) and 25 (science and research), for which all the EU country-members gave agreement, it would be able to open the Chapter 26 too.
Croatia, however, does not give up on blocking the Chapter 26, and insists that issues related to the Croatian minority in Serbia, that is education in their native language, and the return of cultural goods, should be included to the current requirements. The RTS reported that Vucic, in protest over Croatian blockade, left Brussels after a meeting with the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini on Monday evening. Vucic said that he was grateful to Mogherini for the reception, her personal correctness and respect she demonstrates towards Serbia.
“We had a very hard, open and honest conversation. I did not hide unhappiness and disappointment of Serbia’s due to the behavior of some EU country-members, especially Croatia; but since I’m a responsible person and my job is to take care of the future of Serbia, and not to act as some others in our region act, tonight I will not give any additional statements,” Vucic told to the reporters of Serbia’s media.
He said that he had planned many meetings for Brussels on Tuesday, bilateral talks and being present at the inter-government conference of EU and Serbia, and that he apologized to his collocutors for having to cancel. Vucic said that the complete Serbian delegation which should attend, on Tuesday, the opening of the new chapters in the negotiations – with the exception of Minister without Portfolio in charge of European Integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, who had to attend the talks on the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement – would return to Belgrade. On the eve of the meeting with Mogherini, he said that he had “had enough of Croatia’s vents of frustration”.
“Serbia has been patient throughout, and tried not to respond, but from now on we shall talk differently”, Vucic said for TV Prva. According to the reports of Serbian media, the European Commission and EU members do not tend towards accepting Croatian demands concerning chapter 26 on culture and education since they believe that this is not the topic of the chapter and negotiations on membership, and should rather be resolved at a bilateral level. For a time, Croatia also blocked the opening of chapter 23 (judiciary and fundamental rights) which was all the same opened together with chapter 24 (justice, freedom and security) in July this year, instead of in June.
Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Monday that Croatia’s decision to block the opening of chapter 26 demonstrates and unprincipled position when you block that chapter which has nothing to do with the demands made by official Zagreb.
“Will we open this chapter today or in five months, well you cannot think that Serbia will become afraid or endanger its national interests over this. This is a small matter”, Dacic told reporters in Belgrade. He said that the EU should dedicate a lot more attention to the goings on in Croatia.
“If Croatia is the one to decide on whether Serbia will join the EU, I have to say that my interest in the EU immediately drops”, Dacic said.
Dacic: Croatia and Bulgaria not behind blocking of Chapter 26 (RTS, Beta)
Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic says that Croatia and Bulgaria were not behind the blocking of Chapter 26 in Serbia’s EU accession negotiations. Beta agency is reporting this on Tuesday, quoting Dacic, who spoke for the state broadcaster RTS.
“Poor is the EU where Croatia has the last word,” he remarked, noting that Brussels “should pay more attention to what is happening in Croatia.”
“We are not naive. I simply cannot believe it that the mighty EU cannot influence Croatia and Bulgaria concerning the chapters. The values of the Union are violated every day in Croatia, but let us wait and see if today something changes, in theory there is that possibility,” said Dacic. He added that while Serbia “has its own path towards the EU” the country “will not allow anyone to humiliate and insult it, or come up with conditions to open chapters.”
“This is no longer about a gesture of a particular government – an anti-Serb atmosphere has been created. This Croatian government has not changed this attitude towards Serbia. Bulgaria also had some reservations concerning Chapter 26 (on culture and education) – but it is easy to write into your constitution that you con’t have national minorities, as Bulgaria has done, and then talk about the rights of your minority in Serbia,” Dacic said.
Lavrov: Meaningful talks in Belgrade (Beta)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his stay in Serbia had been meaningful in all aspects of bilateral cooperation and that talks with Serbian officials were open and trustworthy as they should be between strategic partners.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic, Lavrov said that the meetings with Serbian officials had focused on relations with NATO and the EU. Dacic said that Lavrov had never come to Belgrade to exert pressure, but to help. “Without Russia, it is not possible to protect Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Dacic said, adding that Serbia would never be an anti-Russia country and that it had no intention of joining NATO.
Lavrov said that Russia cherished solidarity with Serbian partners and backed its effort to resolve problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) exclusively within the Dayton peace accords, stressing that any decision in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue could be made only by means of a consensus. Lavrov and Dacic said that Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic would visit Moscow on Dec. 21, where he would discuss ways to enhance defense cooperation, while Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev would visit Serbia early next year.
Lavrov: We oppose unilateral amendments to Resolution 1244 (Tanjug)
Russia accepts all solutions and processes regarding Kosovo, but with full respect of UN SC Resolution 1244, whose unilateral revision it opposes, says Russian FM Sergey Lavrov.
We are showing solidarity with the Serbian friends and we are against any attempts of unilateral revision of the resolution, he said at a press conference with Serbian FM Ivica Dacic Monday.
Speaking about Russia’s support, Dacic said Lavrov was the one he could call whenever necessary.
Commenting on media allegations that Lavrov had a specific agenda aimed at pressuring Serbia – including regarding the 2017 presidential polls – Dacic said the Russian minister had not come to pressure, but to help Serbia. Lavrov said they had also discussed the situation in the region, including efforts related to Bosnia and Herzegovina that implied respect for all three constitutive nations.
Lavrov: Russia won’t interfere in Serbia’s affairs (B92)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Belgrade on Monday that his country “will not interfere in Serbia’s internal issues.”
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic spoke Russian when he welcomed Lavrov at the Serbian government HQ, and noted that cooperation between the two nations and countries has always been good, adding he was convinced it would be “increasingly more successful” in the future.
The Russian official “conveyed greetings to Prime Minister Vucic from President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, particularly appreciating the personal efforts of the Serbian prime minister for cooperation with Russia, as well as positive trends in economic ties in order to further economic growth and development of the two countries,” the Serbian government said in a statement after the meeting.
Lavrov said that his country “followed with particular attention last spring’s elections in Serbia when Vucic won,” believing it to be a factor contributing to further development of relations between the two countries.
“Russia will not interfere in the internal affairs of Serbia. We are always ready to find a balance in our interests,” said.
Vucic and Lavrov “discussed the cooperation between the two countries and further development of relations based on strategic partnership and the interest of the two countries for its deepening in all directions,” the government said.
Vucic “stressed that one of the focuses of cooperation between Serbia and the Russian Federation should be economic cooperation, taking into account the benefits provided by the Free Trade Agreement,” and that Serbia is “ready to promote cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture and telecommunications, and added that Russian investments in all these areas are welcome.”
Vucic and Lavrov further discussed “the development of cooperation in the field of defence, which will be the topic of the next meeting of Prime Minister Vucic with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow.”
“The upcoming visit of Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev to Serbia” was also one of the topics of today’s meeting, the Serbian government concluded. The meeting was attended by FM Ivica Dacic, Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic, and Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday that while in Belgrade, Lavrov and his hosts would conduct “a deep analysis” of key bilateral and international issues, and consider concrete steps toward further development of cooperation. According to the announcement from Moscow, Kosovo and Medvedev’s visit are also on the agenda.
Shutting down of Russian-Serbian Center “is EU’s condition” (Vecernje Novosti, Danas)
The EU is calling on Serbia to close the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center (RSHC) in Nis if it wants to join the bloc as a member. That is what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said while on his official two-day visit to Belgrade this week, adding that Brussels sees this center, located in southern Serbia, as “a spies’ nest and a security threat.”
“But the fact that during its existence more than four million square meters have been cleared of 1,500 mines and other explosive devices, that the center has helped out out fires in southern Europe, including in EU countries – they’d rather remain silent on that,” Lavrov said.
“And in general, the EU demands Serbia to behave like the Montenegrin leader, who has just betrayed all his commitments, all his promises, who has betrayed Russia despite the fact that Russia has not done anything bad to him,” Lavrov said. He added that this EU strategy of “being friends against someone” was not shared by his country, “which thinks friendship should be established not against, but with someone.”
Dacic: Matter of the status of the Serbian-Russian emergency center is being politicized (B92)
Matter of the status of the Serbian-Russian emergency center is being politicized says Dacic. Dacic also said that he and Lavrov did not discuss the Serbian-Russian emergency center in Nis, as was announced by Belgrade media on the eve of this visit. Dacic said that “that story is being politicized” and that the base in Nis was not “a spy center” but rather served for responses to emergency situations, and that anyone who visited it could see for themselves. He said that it was cynical to talk about an alleged Russian pressure for the Russian staff in that center to get diplomatic immunity, without anyone objecting when, in 2006, Serbia signed with the US the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) agreement by which it, among other, guaranteed the immunity of US soldiers on the territory of Serbia.
“The [status of the Russian staff] will be discussed when Medvedev comes”, Dacic said. Lavrov said that that center did not represent a threat either to the EU or NATO and that along with all the other activities, it had carried out a major work with the de-mining on the territory of Serbia, left over after the NATO bombing of 1999. “If someone sees in this some anti-NATO tendencies, then they in fact do not want any cooperation between Serbia and Russia”, he said.
REGIONAL PRESS
Candidates for post of President of Court of B&H undergo interviews (TV1)
Interviews with candidates for the post of the President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) were conducted on Monday. After the reactions by war victims’ associations and SDA, SB&H also commented this appointment. They all agree that ethnic balance in judiciary should not be undermined, which will happen if a Bosniak candidate is not appointed at this post. Currently, a Croat performs duty of acting Chief Prosecutor of B&H, a Serb is President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of B&H and B&H Justice Minister is a Croat as well. According to SB&H, the HJPC must observe laws and appoint a candidate from rank of Bosniaks and everything else would mean violation of the Constitution. SB&H agrees with SDA that Bosniak candidate should be appointed. The HJPC President Milan Tegeltija stated that that the President of the Court of B&H will not be selected according to ethnicity and wishes and demands by politicians or parties, and stressed that the best candidate will be selected. The final decision on appointment will be made on Wednesday. There are seven candidates for the post, of which five are judges of the Court of B&H – Mira Smajlovic, Tihomir Lukes, Izo Tankic, Ranko Debevec and Branko Peric. Two other candidates are Chief Prosecutor of Sarajevo Canton Dalida Burzic and state prosecutor Ismet Suskic.
Radoncic: Politicians should refrain from influence on HJPC’s decision (Dnevni avaz)
The SBB Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) leader Fahrudin Radoncic stated that the process of election of President of the Court of B&H must be conducted without any influence, adding that political parties and politicians should refrain from any influence on decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of B&H on this issue. Radoncic added that what matters the most is that the candidate is highly professional and ethical individual, who will bring back trust to work of this institution.
Croatian President: Serbia can easily meet the required criterion (Hina)
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said that the required criterion for the opening of Chapter 26 on education and culture was not a political problem and that Serbia could easily meet that criterion. Asked if Croatia should soften its criteria towards Serbia, Grabar-Kitarovic said. “Criteria are criteria and all criteria must be met.”
She recalled that during its membership talks Croatia was faced with a number of blockades which at the time it perceived as unfair, but at the same time they were beyond Croatia’s control.
“In this case, this criterion can easily be met and I see no political or any other problem that could prevent it;” Grabar Kitarovic said.
“Even the declaration that I have signed with Mr. Vucic was Croatia’s way of reaching out and showing that it will be Serbia’s partner on its path to EU membership,” Grabar Kitarovic said, adding that the declaration created conditions for improving living conditions and education of ethnic minorities, including the Croat minority in Serbia. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic criticized Croatia in the strongest terms over the blockade of Chapter 26. Nikolic however, called Zagreb for talks and bilateral cooperation and urged the creation of a society without borders, racial or religious conflicts.
Slovenia’s PM against conditioning Serbia’s EU talks (Hina)
Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar on Monday said that his government would not condition Serbia’s EU negotiations with outstanding bilateral issues concerning archival materials from the period of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) that were destroyed in Slovenia, however, copies are still kept in Belgrade.
“That would be an abuse of procedure,” Cerar said. Cerar said that the European Commission had recommended that Slovenia should green-light the opening and closing of Chapter 26 in Serbia’s negotiations as no benchmarks were set for this chapter.
NATO – the path without alternative (RTCG)
Montenegro is on the verge of joining the NATO alliance, but despite that, political parties are still divided on the issue of full membership in this organization. While in the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) believe that this is Montenegro’s path without alternative, opposition claims that the final judgment should be given by citizens on a referendum. For DPS deputy Miodrag Vukovic, the process of Montenegro’s accession has come to an end, and he believes that it should be completed. An official of SDP Rasko Konjevic, agrees that Montenegro has entered the final stage of preparation for full membership in NATO. The opposite opinion was given by Goran Danilovic from DEMOS. He believes that most of the citizens of Montenegro want to make a statement on NATO issue on the referendum.
SEC announces preliminary results: 51 seats for VMRO-DPMNE, 49 for SDSM (MIA)
In Sunday’s early parliamentary polls in Macedonia, the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats in Parliament with the main opposition party SDSM securing 49 seats in Parliament, according to preliminary results. The election results were presented by the State Election Commission (SEC) at a news conference on Monday evening.
They show that DUI, the junior government coalition partner, won 10 seats, whereas BESA Movement, the Albanian opposition party, won 5 mandates in Macedonia’s assembly, which consists of 123 members, elected from six electoral districts, each contributing 20 MPs. Furthermore, the Alliance for Albanians won 3 seats and two seats were secured by DPA.
The U.S. Embassy concurs with OSCE/ODIHR’s assessment that Macedonia held its early parliamentary elections in a peaceful climate, marred only by several procedural irregularities.
Foreign officials comment Macedonian elections (MIA, Republika)
The U.S. Embassy commends the citizens of Macedonia who exercised their right to vote in the December 11 parliamentary elections, U.S. Ambassador Jess Baily told a news conference Monday in Skopje.
“We welcome OSCE/ODIHR’s preliminary conclusions that the elections were competitive and that fundamental freedoms were generally respected. The turnout was high, and the elections proceeded in a calm and orderly manner, with few cases of procedural irregularities” Baily stated.
“We encourage the parties who form the new government to work constructively with the opposition to enact reforms that will further the process of Euro-Atlantic integration, particularly with regard to rule of law. The United States remains Macedonia’s partner in that effort,” the Ambassador said.
Foreign Affairs Ministers from European Union countries and Commissioner Johannes Hahn expressed their satisfaction with the conduct of the early general elections in Macedonia, said Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Poposki. MIA correspondent in Brussels reports that Poposki met with the EU Foreign Ministers and Hahn on Monday morning, after which he said that now is the time to open EU accession talks for Macedonia.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Macedonia should form a political Government as soon as possible. “I want to congratulate to our Macedonian friends, because their elections were held in a free and fair manner. I think that there should be no concerns raised about it. If we consider earlier criticism on the part of the European Union and other Western allies against Macedonia, the latest expectations were that there should be free and fair elections as an end to the process we’ve seen in the past months and years. Now that was accomplished and free and fair elections were conducted without complaints, for which we congratulate you” said Szijjarto.
Elections in Macedonia represent an important step in resolving the ongoing political crisis in the country, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday. “OSCE, which has monitored the process with numerous observers and extensive technical support from the outset, has reported a calm electoral process”, Steinmeier said in Brussels. According to him, it is now important that a government is formed swiftly, using its mandate to implement urgent reforms. The country needs urgent results in the areas of the rule of law and the judiciary, public administration as well as freedom of media and expression.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
The Euro-Atlantic Project is Ending in the Balkans (BIRN, by Jasmin Mujanovic)
As UK and America withdraw from the region, Europe’s ability to use ‘soft power’ to nudge the Balkans in the direction of liberal democracy will further decline, making instability more likely.
For all the trappings of European soft power, the post-Yugoslav settlement in the Western Balkans was always primarily the result of the security guarantees provided to the region by three states: the US, UK, and Germany. As of January 20, 2017, two of those three guarantors will for all intents and purposes disappear from the calculus of regional politics in any meaningful sense.
A post-Brexit United Kingdom and a Donald Trump-led United States will no longer be factors in the politics of the Western Balkans. There will be no official announcement of this and American and British aid of various sorts will likely continue to flow.
But it will be directed towards marginalia and take the form of stopgap measures and photo-ops. It will not be directed towards addressing and resolving structural questions of the region’s politics.
British and American evacuation from the Balkans will leave Germany in a delicate position. Berlin is already under tremendous pressure as the lone liberal-democratic stalwart in a sea of reactionary populists. Virtually alone, Germany holds together the European project in the face of seething financial unrest in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and against resurgent Russian power.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has long asked the British and Americans to play a more constructive role in Europe and share the load. For the last eight years, their response has been frequently muted but nevertheless present, as evidenced by the so-called “British-German Initiative” which briefly salvaged Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (B&H) European perspective.
The response now, however, will not be silence. Instead, it will be the alarming chaotic shrieking of the constitutional crises that grip the White House and Downing Street even now.
Balkan leaders are not ignorant of these developments and are already searching for new benefactors. Macedonia’s Nikola Gruevski, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic, and Bosnia’s Milorad Dodik increasingly look to Moscow for their marching orders, for financial aid, and the ideological justifications for their collective authoritarian transformations.
Others, like the Bosniak leader in Bosnia, Bakir Izetbegovic, look to Ankara or to the Gulf states but for largely the same reasons.
And as a whole, the Balkan political establishment salivates at increasing Chinese penetration. Elites in the former Yugoslavia are desperate for new cash flows to keep their economically and politically bankrupt regimes afloat. China’s “16+1” initiative is a lifeline for them and it is especially fortuitous that Chinese money and infrastructure comes with no strings attached.
Much the same can be said of the Russian and Turkish offers; no need for “conditionality,” reform, or democracy.
Amid this realignment, Brussels is a non-entity. It is not merely because the EU rarely speaks with one voice. Rather, the EU’s increasing irrelevance in the Western Balkans is primarily the result of its own wilful ignorance.
Consider the recent “Progress Reports,” wherein Brussels evaluates the advances made towards key integration criteria among the various prospective member states in the region. In a year that saw the most significant attack on Bosnia’s Dayton constitutional order since the peace agreement was enacted in 1996, the Progress Report only mentions the referendum in the Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, in one sentence.
This is no mere oversight but an indicator that the EU’s priorities in the Balkans are no longer democratization, socio-economic, or political reform. Brussels is concerned merely with appearances and banal appearances of stability. EU representatives in Sarajevo, Skopje, and Belgrade speak in terms of what should be the case but ignore what is happening on the ground, how seismically the region’s political situation has already shifted.
The authoritarianism of the Gruevski regime in Macedonia did not emerge overnight any more than Dodik’s dangerous obstructionism in Republika Srpska. Each was enabled by diplomatic niceties, if not incompetence, and virtually condition-less financial loans.
Now that the EU itself pulsates with the cancerous growth of far-right populism, European leaders like Sebastian Kurz of Austria travel to the region not to shine the torch of liberalism but to pledge solidarity with the provincial despots we have hired to keep the desperate refugee masses at bay.
If the democratic idea is to have a future in the Balkans, it will depend on the ability of ordinary citizens, like those still regularly in the streets of Skopje, to confront and, when necessary, remove their unaccountable leaders. For better or worse, no one else will do it, that much is clear.
If government of the people, by the people and for the people is to succeed in the Western Balkans, in other words, it will depend primarily on civil society to make it a reality.
But a final note of caution, especially to those in Washington and Brussels who believe that “this too shall pass”. All options are now back on the table as far as the Balkan political elites are concerned. The infrastructure for war, in the grand and formal sense of the term, may not exist but significant instability in the next four years is almost a certainty.
The Dodik government has already announced a secession referendum for 2018. His administration has been emboldened by the international community’s inept response to his last referendum ploy, so there is every reason to believe the gambit to come is a credible threat. Nor should anyone believe that B&H can dissolve peacefully. And, as goes B&H, so go the Balkans.
Structurally, however, the potential end of Euro-Atlantic supremacy in the region means that the Balkans will realign according to competing authoritarian allegiances. As the constant diplomatic sniping between Croatia and Serbia illustrates, such a development all but guarantees not only permanent instability but conflict of one sort or another, sooner rather than later.
Srebrenica massacre trial opening postponed in Serbia (AP)
The opening of the landmark trial of eight former Bosnian Serb police officers charged with taking part in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was postponed Monday, reflecting hurdles in attempts to bring war crimes suspects to justice by Serbian courts.
The long-awaited trial at the War Crimes court in Belgrade is seen as a test of Serbia’s pledge to deal with its wartime past and an important step in Balkan reconciliation efforts more than two decades after the Bosnian war ended.
Monday was supposed to be the first day of the trial. But it was interrupted over defense lawyers’ demand for the replacement of the presiding three-judge panel, which rejected their request to reveal the names of protected witnesses.
A ruling on the defense motion is expected by Tuesday.
The proceedings will mark the first time that a Serbian court will deal with the killing of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb troops — Europe’s worst single atrocity since World War II.
Serbia has pledged to punish war criminals to advance toward EU membership. Its current nationalist government has faced criticism for stalling on the pledge.
The eight suspects are charged with participating in the killing of hundreds of Muslims in a warehouse in Kravica, a village outside Srebrenica, as they tried to escape the Serb onslaught.
Around 1,300 were crammed into the warehouse in the village and then killed with grenades and machine guns in a rampage that lasted all night.
The group was apprehended more than a year ago. They were later released despite the gravity of the charges, pending the start of the trial, which has been repeatedly delayed over legal procedures.
“The criminals were allowed to come to the trial as if they were witnesses. They walk free and live normally in Serbia,” said Munira Subasic, head of the Mothers of Srebrenica group, who came to Belgrade to monitor the trial.
“I don’t have any expectations from this trial,” said Subasic, whose son was killed in the Kravica warehouse. Among the suspects is a special police unit commander, Nedeljko Milidragovic, also known as “Nedjo the Butcher,” accused of ordering the killings.
Experts have warned that other war crimes trials in Serbia also have been marred by legal hurdles, slow proceedings and overturned verdicts in a number of cases, enabling suspects to remain free for years.
“I believe the justice system is convenient for them (war criminals),” Milica Kostic, of the Humanitarian Law Center group, recently told The Associated Press. “There is not a single aspect (of war crimes trials) without serious problems.”
For nearly a year, Serbia’s nationalist government has failed to appoint a chief war crimes prosecutor after the previous one, Vladimir Vukcevic, retired in January.
Vukcevic was instrumental in the capture of the accused masterminds of the Srebrenica massacres Bosnian Serb political and military leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. They were charged with genocide at the Netherlands-based U.N. war crimes court, but many Serbs still view them as heroes. The tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, criticized Serbia at the U.N. Security Council last week for the refusal to hand over three ultranationalist politicians sought in contempt of the court. Brammertz said that “there is little evidence Serbia is implementing its commitments to support war crimes prosecutions.”
