Serbs worried as del Ponte sees Belgrade as stonewalling

Tadic adviser warns of isolation over lack of cooperation with court

By Jovana Gec - The Associated Press

BELGRADE - Serbia will lose western support and face isolation unless the government arrests and extradites the Serb war crimes suspects sought by the UN tribunal, an adviser to the Balkan republic’s pro-Western president warned yesterday.

“None of that (western support) will happen,” Jovan Simic, adviser to President Boris Tadic, told B92 radio. “We will not be able to function.”

Simic spoke hours after chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte singled out Belgrade as the key obstacle to the work of the tribunal in The Hague.

In a report before the UN Security Council, del Ponte also said the conservative government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica was not cooperating with the tribunal and demanded anew that Belgrade apprehend the fugitives.

The tribunal is seeking the arrest and handover of more than a dozen suspects, including former Bosnian-Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who is wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity over the Srebrenica massacre.

Belgrade is also under pressure to arrest four Serb army and police generals charged in connection with the Kosovo atrocities, as well as a number of low-ranking suspects. But Kostunica has been reluctant to arrest the wanted men, saying it could destabilize the volatile republic. He has claimed that Mladic is no longer hiding in Serbia and has urged the others to surrender voluntarily.

Simic said that del Ponte’s report to the Security Council will create “immense political pressure on Kostunica.” “The Hague tribunal will be posed as a priority,” he said.

Also yesterday, the Foreign Ministry of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that Serbia forms with tiny Montenegro, warned that del Ponte’s report was a “warning that should be taken very seriously.”

“Any further refusal or stalling (with the arrests) will be damaging for our national and state interests,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The US and its allies have threatened to block much-needed financial and political support for Serbia if it does not arrest Mladic and other fugitives. Simic warned that “we cannot function without money” and that “we’ll be left without (an) economy.”

Kostunica and the pro-western Tadic are split over cooperation with the Hague court. Tadic favors arresting and handing over the fugitives but he “can do nothing about it,” Simic said.