Nov 10, 2008

War Crimes Keep You Out of the EU?


They really have much tougher rules than NATO.

YahooNews: Security forces searched Monday for war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic at a factory in Serbia, whose new government must capture the ex-Bosnian Serb general in order to speed up its EU accession. Armed with automatic firearms and dressed in all-black masks and outfits, the police surrounded the factory in the southwestern town of Valjevo at mid-morning, according to officials.

Mladic, 66, is wanted by a UN tribunal for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during his time as commander of the Bosnian Serb military forces during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. He notably faces charges relating to the siege of Sarajevo which claimed more than 10,000 lives and for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys -- Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

Last month, Serbia said it had intensified its hunt for Mladic to an unprecedented level ahead of a confirmed visit in a week's time by the UN tribunal's chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz. Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal is a key condition for closer ties with the European Union, which the new pro-Western government in Belgrade hopes to join by 2014.

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