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Serbia Ready to Arrest Hague Fugitive in Hope of Resuming EU Talks - Daily2006-09-23BBC Monitoring EuropeanText of report by N.M. Jovanovic entitled "Hadzic's arrest in exchange for EU support", published by Serbian newspaper Blic on 22 September The Serbian government is prepared to arrest Goran Hadzic, in addition to yesterday's [21 September] arrest of Marko Lugonja, in order to prove to the European Union before 1 October that it wants to improve cooperation with the Hague tribunal [International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - ICTY], Blic has learned high up in the governing coalition. "This will be the government's last bid to get the green light for resuming negotiations with the European Union and a favourable evaluation of its cooperation from Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. If this should cut no ice, then the government's survival will be at stake," our source says. MUP [Interior Ministry] plainclothes police yesterday arrested Marko Lugonja, former high-ranking officer of the Army of the [B-H] Serb Republic, who is suspected of harbouring Ratko Mladic in 2002. Our source claims that Hadzic is hiding on a mountain in Serbia; already two years ago, Hadzic was a test for the Serbian authorities' cooperation with the Hague tribunal. "The response of Del Ponte is now awaited," our source says. Goran Hadzic, former president of the breakaway Serb entity in Croatia during the war in the former Yugoslavia, is still evading justice. The Hague tribunal indicted Hadzic on 13 July 2004 on 14 counts of violation of the laws and customs of war. Three days before the indictment was made public on 16 July, Hadzic fled from his home in Novi Sad and is still in hiding. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is prepared to take this step in order to secure a majority in the assembly until a new constitution could be adopted by the end of the year. The race against the clock becomes still harder when one knows that the constitution should define Kosovo as part of Serbia and that it has already been announced that Kosovo's final status will be settled by the end of the year. If the G17 Plus leaves the Serbian government and assembly, the constitution will not be in jeopardy, because in this party they insist that their deputies would support the passage of the new constitution. However, the question arises as to whether early elections will have to be called at the same time. The G17 Plus says that, when its ministers resign, Kostunica will have two options - either to fill the vacancies in the cabinet with new ministers or to call parliamentary elections within 15 days. "The only legal loophole that Kostunica may hope to exploit is not to convene the Serbian Assembly, because the assembly would have to open session by recognizing the resignations of the G17 Plus ministers. If this fails, Kostunica will most probably opt for calling a referendum and parliamentary elections concurrently, because there is no chance that the DS [Democratic Party] will support the governing coalition," our source explains. (c) 2006 BBC Monitoring European. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Channel: USHMM: International Law
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