Serbia's last war crimes fugitive arrested

Source: Aljazeera

Serbia's last major war crimes fugitive, a Croatian Serb wartime leader indicted for crimes against humanity during the 1991-95 Croatian war, has been arrested, a Serbian official has told Reuters news agency.

Boris Tadic, Serbia's president, said on Wednesday that Hadzic was arrested in the mountainous Fruska Gora region of northern Serbia. "With this, Serbia, has concluded its most difficult chapter in the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal," Tadic said in a televised statement. Tadic said his country has now concluded its "legal duties ... as well as its moral duty", meeting EU demands that it track down and arrest all war crimes fugitives.

Hadzic was a key figure in the breakaway Krajina Serb republic in Croatia and was also Serbia's last remaining figure sought by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. In all, the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted 161 people and Hadzic is the last to be arrested.

The issue had also blocked Serbia's bid at European Union (EU) membership. The EU, which hailed Belgrade for finding Mladic in May, had continued to insist on the arrest of Hadzic for Serbia to make progress towards EU membership.

Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/07/201172074249705610.html

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It is great that Serbia finally arrested the last of those indicted by the ICTY. It sounds like the lure of membership in the EU played a major role in motivating Serbia to pursue and arrest them. It's good that the EU used the importance of these arrests as such an important factor in Serbia being considered for EU membership.