THE HAGUE — Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen described as "positive" Thursday a report on Serbia's cooperation with a UN war crimes tribunal, a key issue in Belgrade's bid for closer ties with the EU.
"The Brammertz report is positive," he said in a statement, after chief UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz handed down his cooperation report to the United Nations.
"I will discuss next week with my European colleagues what this means for taking decisions concerning Serbia's integration process" into the EU, he said.
The Netherlands, which hosts the war crimes court, has insisted on the arrest of former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic on genocide charges, and has blocked an agreement Serbia signed with the EU in April.
The accord -- a Stabilisation and Association Agreement -- is seen as the first step for Balkan nations towards membership of the 27-nation EU.
"The Netherlands wants the European Union to support as much as possible the work of the prosecutor and to encourage Serbia to cooperate with the tribunal," the statement said.
"For that to happen, pressure must be maintained so that the two last fugitives, including Mladic, are found and handed over."
On Tuesday, a foreign ministry spokesman said that if Serbia was cooperating fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), "this would have consequences for the Netherlands' position."
At the United Nations, Brammertz said: "Serbia's cooperation with my office has continued to progress. Prosecution requests to access documents and archives are being dealt with more expeditiously and effectively."
Presenting his report to the UN Security Council, Brammertz said it was essential for the cooperation to be maintained as they move towards trials in his tribunal.
"The most critical aspect of Serbia's cooperation is the need to apprehend the fugitives. This remains one of my office's highest priorities," he added.
News reports from Belgrade Thursday said Serbian security agents had searched apartments belonging to suspected accomplices of top war crimes fugitives Mladic and Goran Hadzic, seizing documents.
Mladic is wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN protected enclave of Srebrenica in the 1990s.
Dutch UN peacekeepers were blamed for failing to stop the carnage.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCa6sb_IF0PNYLVgaJygGPZWaAJw
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