EU Pressures Serbs To Arrest Fugitive

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot told parliament Thursday that Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic is sick and is "negotiating with his entourage" on a surrender.

Dutch media had reported earlier that Bot said Mladic was negotiating with Serbian authorities, but spokesman Dirk Jan Vermeij said those reports were inaccurate. He said Bot heard on Monday that Mladic was discussing a surrender with his own people, not the government.

"The minister said that he heard during meetings in Belgrade that Mladic is sick, but that the Serbs don't know where he is. The rumor Bot picked up was that Mladic was negotiating with his entourage," he said.

He could not give further details.

Bot met with the prime minister, foreign minister and president during his visit Monday to Belgrade, ministry spokeswoman Hannah Tijmes said.

Meanwhile, a Serbian government official, responding to new warnings from the European Union, offered more assurances Thursday morning that every effort was being made to capture fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.

"We are doing all we can to fulfill this obligation regardless of the pressure and additional deadlines," said Rasim Ljajic, head of the Serbian agency in charge of cooperation with the U.N. tribunal.

He did not specify what action was being taken to arrest Mladic.

Contradictory statements from officials in Belgrade have repeatedly caused confusion about how close authorities are to reaching the former Bosnian Serb general, with security officials insisting Wednesday that negotiations were under way for his surrender and the government issuing denials.

Serbian authorities made contact with Mladic, a senior security official, close to the operation to capture the general, told The Associated Press Wednesday. The official said "a direct line of communication" has been established with the wartime Bosnian Serb general.

The chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor said other reports that Mladic had been apprehended were "false rumors ... (with) absolutely no basis whatsoever."

Seeking to keep up the pressure, the European Union on Thursday renewed threats to freeze negotiations on Serbia-Montenegro's possible membership in the bloc unless Mladic was delivered to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb commander, has been indicted on genocide charges for allegedly orchestrating the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in the U.N. enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, Europe's worst carnage since World War II and the worst crime of Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

The EU's new warning to Belgrade came from the official leading efforts to bring new member nations into the bloc.

Olli Rehn, speaking from EU headquarters in Brussels, said entry talks with Belgrade would be frozen if Serbia does not fully cooperate with the tribunal's hunt for Mladic.

If Serbia does cooperate "it cannot avoid ... disruption of negotiations," Rehn told a committee of the European Parliament.

"It is important Serbia's effort lead to full cooperation without delay," he said. "It should lead to the arrest and transfer of Mladic."

The European Commission, the bloc's executive office, has not fixed a deadline, but the next round of so-called "stabilization and association" talks with the EU are scheduled for April.