Serbia Offers 10 Million Euros For Ratko Mladic Arrest

The Serbian government offered 10 million euros reward for the information on the former Bosnian Serb leader, Ratko Mladic, wanted by the Hague Tribunal.

Gen Mladic is suspected of war crimes during the 1990s war in Bosnia, including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo.

He has been on the run for 15 years.

Meanwhile, the full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal is the condition for Serbia’s further integration in the European Union, to which membership it aspires. The Belgrade’s drastic increase of the reward that would lead to Gen Mladic’s arrest, from one to 10 million Euros, comes only days after European Union foreign ministers invited the European Commission to give its opinion on Serbia's bid to join the 27-bloc.

Despite the Serbian officials’ statements that Gen Mladic would have been extradited to The Hague if it was possible, the prosecution and the Western leaders were often heard assessing he is probably still hiding in Serbia.

The government also raised a reward for the information on wartime Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic, indicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead of 250,000 euros, the information on his whereabouts is now worth one million euros.

"These two men have kept the whole nation hostage - also their families and future generations," Serbian deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said, and added “Serbia was demonstrating clear political will to remove the last remaining obstacle on its path towards the EU”.