Chief war crimes prosecutor calls on Serbia to find, arrest Mladic

The UN's chief war crimes prosecutor is continuing her condemnation of Serbia for its failure to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.

Earlier this week, the European Union broke off talks aimed at bringing Serbia into the EU after it missed a deadline to produce the former general.

Carla Del Ponte said Friday the failure was "a big disappointment.

"Prime Minister [Vojislav Kostunica] . . . promised me . . . that by the end of April, Mladic would be in The Hague. So you can imagine my disappointment. Prime Minister Kostunica is free to say what he wants. I insist and I confirm that [I was promised] a delivery of Mladic by the end of April."

The EU acted to suspend its talks with Serbia after Del Ponte said Serbian authorities were not co-operating in efforts to find Mladic.

Indicted in absentia

Mladic is accused of orchestrating the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s and the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.

He has been indicted in absentia on charges of genocide.

Earlier this week, Del Ponte said Serb authorities purposely passed up the chance to arrest the war-crimes suspect.

Del Ponte also said Friday, while attending a conference in Sarajevo, that she "isn't forgetting [Radovan] Karadzic," the former Bosnian Serb leader.

"Somebody else in my office is following that, but as soon as I have Mladic . . . we will put Karadzic as the other priority. I have four fugitives and I don't forget [anybody]. I want to have all six in the Hague before my mandate expires."