U.N. Prosecutor: Mladic 'At Large'

Serbia is not negotiating for the surrender of Ratko Mladic, the top war crimes suspect from the Yugoslav wars, and he "remains at large," chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Wednesday.

She forcefully denied reports from Belgrade that Serbian authorities were negotiating for the surrender of Mladic. The state news agency Tanjug reported Tuesday that Mladic was arrested in Belgrade and being taken to a U.S.-run air base for transport to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

"There is no indication at all that negotiations about his surrender are currently being conducted." Del Ponte said she was in contact with the authorities in Belgrade on Tuesday "and I was assured" no such negotiations were being held.

"Mladic remains at large," she told reporters at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

"The false rumors spread yesterday (Tuesday) from Belgrade about the arrest of Mladic have absolutely no basis whatsoever," she said.

She used the confusion surrounding the fate of Mladic to again urge Serbia to immediately arrest him, repeating her long-held view that the former general is in Serbia enjoying the protection of the authorities there. Mladic was known to have made daring forays into Belgrade in recent years to watch soccer games and feast on fish at an elite restaurant.

"Ratko Mladic is in Serbia," she said, reading from a prepared one-page statement.

"There is no doubt about this. He has been there since 1998. During all this time he has been and remains within reach of the Serbian authorities."

She urged the European Union to continue to link Serbian cooperation in bringing Mladic to justice to the country's desire to eventually join the bloc.

"I now need a stronger support from the European Union to have Mladic in The Hague very soon."

Mladic is wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal on genocide charges for allegedly orchestrating Europe's worst carnage since World War II, the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in 1995, and for other crimes during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Mladic is No. 2 on the tribunal's most-wanted list after Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who remains at large. Mladic, who is at least 62, has a $5 million State Department bounty on his head.

Under an indictment last amended in October 2002, the U.N. war crimes tribunal charged Mladic with 15 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 1992-1996.

If tried and convicted, Mladic faces life imprisonment, the tribunal's maximum punishment. The U.N. court has no death penalty.

The EU plans to sign this year with Serbia a so-called Stabilization and Association Agreement, a stepping stone to possible EU membership.

Del Ponte's request for "stronger" support from the EU sounded like a plea for the Europeans not to proceed with the signing of the agreement.

Last week European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Enlargement Commissioner Ollie Rehn were in Serbia carrying a dual message: that Serbia has a future in the EU provided it cooperates with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.