The arrest of Ratko Mladic
This topic was discussed on 26 May 2011. Listen to the podcast.
Police in Serbia have arrested Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander who's been on the run for more than fifteen years, after being indicted for war crimes. In a news conference the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, said General Mladic had been detained on Thursday morning and the process was underway to extradite him to the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. Serbian media said he was arrested with false identity documents in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. In 1995, he was indicted for crimes during the Bosnian war, including the genocide at Srebrenica.
The news of his arrest broke just before our early edition. We gathered reaction from the region and spoke to journalists who had covered the Bosnian War back in the nineties. You can listen to the earlier programme here.
But the discussion continues, and the internet has been flooded with comments on Ratko Mladic...
Many of you congratulated Serbia on finally arresting Mr Mladic. Justin in Germany wrote on our Facebook:
Justin in Germany writes on Facebook
Excellent news for Europe and humanity. I knew we would get him. We have to learn from the terror that has raged in europe to many times already.
But others are more sceptical. Many of you say that his arrest is a well timed political manoevre, designed to open the door to EU membership. Sandokan in Serbia posts on the
This is best proof that Serbia doesn't have it's own way of thinking, we can only do something if EU tells us to.We arrested him when they told us that our EU future is was in doubt .Sad but true..
Dmitry in Moscow writes on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian.com:
It's a happy moment. But how on earth did he manage to hide for so long? It seems that Serbia didn't do anything to find him. They did it only to please the EU in the end.
But many of you are celebrating, and see this latest arrest as a sign that international justice is closing in on those suspected of war crimes. Ocaya in Uganda posts on Facebook
You can run and hide, but you can't escape. Let justice prevail and send a strong signal to the human right abusers and killers that there's no impunity.
In our 1700 GMT programme we'll be talking through the many questions raised by his arrest. Is his arrest cause for celebration or scepticism? Is this a new start for Serbia? Does his arrest show that there are no safe havens for the world's most wanted?
