Global Policy Forum

Ian Traynor

Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic, is sheltering with impunity in Belgrade, free from prosecution, Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal in the Hague, said yesterday. "Belgrade is now a safe haven for our fugitives ... Karadzic is now residing in Belgrade," she said. She has long argued that General Ratko Mladic, wanted on charges of genocide for the mass murder of up to 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995, is living in Serbia. Cooperation between Serbia and the Hague tribunal was frozen, she added, a statement that could cost Serbia tens of millions of dollars in US aid. Mr Karadzic had moved to the Serbian capital following a recent raid on his family home outside Sarajevo by Nato troops. They carried out the search for Mr Karadzic last month in what was viewed by Bosnian observers as a feeble attempt to apprehend the man who has been on the run for more than eight years. Ms Del Ponte complained that there were now 15 fugitives from the Hague tribunal in Serbia and showed little hope that the authorities in Belgrade would arrest and transfer the suspects. Serbia's caretaker prime minister, the reformist Zoran Zivkovic, told Reuters that Ms Del Ponte had never given "either information or any other kind of help which would lead to locating or catching the suspects" or prove they were not on Serbian land. The interior ministry said: "Serbia does not have information which would confirm the claims of Ms Carla Del Ponte."

Seven weeks after a general election in which the extremist nationalist Radical party, led by the war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj, came out strongest, Serbia still does not have a government. The conservative nationalist leader, Vojislav Kostunica, a bitter critic of Ms Del Ponte and the Hague, is frontrunner to become new prime minister, probably of a minority government which will not last long in office. Mr Kostunica has caused a storm of controversy by recently sounding out the socialist party of Slobodan Milosevic for its tacit support for his minority government. Mr Milosevic, currently on trial in the Hague, is the first sitting European head of state to be indicted for war crimes. Last week Mr Kostunica's candidate for the post of parliament speaker in Belgrade was elected with the support of the Milosevic party. With the extremist Radicals the biggest party in the new parliament and Mr Kostunica doing deals with the Milosevic acolytes, there seems little chance of the suspects facing international justice soon. Ms Del Ponte has to close her investigations this year and there is mounting pressure for Mr Karadzic and Mr Mladic to be seized and taken to the Hague. "Mladic is in Serbia. I could have him tomorrow if there was the political will to arrest him," Ms Del Ponte told the Guardian last week. She added that there was growing international resolve, particularly from the US, to apprehend Mr Karadzic. "But it's more difficult than eight years ago. He has become an expert at hiding." Sources in Bosnia believe that in the run-up to the US election in November, Washington could unleash a special forces operation to seize Mr Karadzic. Mr Karadzic's close associate, Momcilo Krajisnik, went on trial in the Hague last week. But time is running out since the tribunal is under UN orders to wind up all its trials by 2008. A dedicated trial chamber may, however, be established in the Hague solely to deal with three cases - Mr Karadzic, Mr Mladic, and the Croatian General Ante Gotovina - if they are not resolved within the deadline for closing down the tribunal. Under a draft resolution at the United Nations in New York, Ms Del Ponte could be forced to forfeit some of her powers of deciding who gets charged with war crimes. Yesterday, in response to a Guardian report, she and the tribunal president, Judge Theodor Meron, denied that judges at the tribunal were blocking any of her indictments.

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