Serbian News Media Say Accused War Criminal Arrested
By MARLISE SIMONS and J. DAVID GOODMAN
PARIS The Serbian news media reported Thursday morning that the police in Serbia have arrested a man suspected of being Ratko Mladic, the fugitive accused of masterminding the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995.
Serbias President Boris Tadic scheduled an urgent news conference of 7 a.m. Eastern time.
Mr. Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general, was one of the worlds most wanted criminals, evading capture for more than 15 years despite an increasing international effort to hunt him down.
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Sometimes hiding in plain sight at soccer matches and sometimes deep in the fabric of this secretive city, Mr. Mladic appeared to have spent recent years hidden by no more than a handful of loyalists, investigators and some of his past associates have said. The former leader of the armed forces of the Bosnian Serbs during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s was thought to be last living in New Belgrade, a sprawling extension of the Serbian capital across the Sava River. His diminished circumstances appeared to make him ripe for capture.
Over the years, as European pressure for an arrest intensified and then retreated, he received vital, little known, assistance from Serbian military forces and several of the countrys past governments. The arrest of Mr. Mladic had been a prerequisite for Serbias bid to join the European Union, but last year the union voted to move ahead with membership talks with Serbia anyway.
By MARLISE SIMONS and J. DAVID GOODMAN
PARIS The Serbian news media reported Thursday morning that the police in Serbia have arrested a man suspected of being Ratko Mladic, the fugitive accused of masterminding the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995.
Serbias President Boris Tadic scheduled an urgent news conference of 7 a.m. Eastern time.
Mr. Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general, was one of the worlds most wanted criminals, evading capture for more than 15 years despite an increasing international effort to hunt him down.
.
Sometimes hiding in plain sight at soccer matches and sometimes deep in the fabric of this secretive city, Mr. Mladic appeared to have spent recent years hidden by no more than a handful of loyalists, investigators and some of his past associates have said. The former leader of the armed forces of the Bosnian Serbs during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s was thought to be last living in New Belgrade, a sprawling extension of the Serbian capital across the Sava River. His diminished circumstances appeared to make him ripe for capture.
Over the years, as European pressure for an arrest intensified and then retreated, he received vital, little known, assistance from Serbian military forces and several of the countrys past governments. The arrest of Mr. Mladic had been a prerequisite for Serbias bid to join the European Union, but last year the union voted to move ahead with membership talks with Serbia anyway.