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<DIV><FONT size=4><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=5>Accused Bosnian War Criminal
Located</FONT></STRONG><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2><BR><B>Tuesday February 21, 2006
10:01 PM</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2><B>AP Photo NY190</B> </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2><B>By DUSAN STOJANOVIC</B>
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2><B>Associated Press Writer</B>
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -
Gen. Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb commander accused of orchestrating
Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II, has been located in
Serbia and authorities are negotiating his surrender, security officials said
Tuesday. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Mladic, considered the most
ruthless commander of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, ``has not yet been
arrested,'' one official who is close to the operation to find Mladic told The
Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not entitled
to speak to the media. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Another security official, also
demanding anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information and fears of
jeopardizing negotiations, confirmed that Mladic's ``hiding place has been
discovered in recent days.'' </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Both officials refused to specify
the exact whereabouts of Mladic's hideout, but the private Beta news agency said
the former commander was found on Cer Mountain, some 60 miles west of Belgrade
on the border with Bosnia. Beta did not cite its source. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Earlier, the Belgrade-based agency
reported that ``an operation was in progress to locate'' Mladic. It also did not
name the source of that information. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor
Carla Del Ponte repeatedly has said Mladic is in Serbia and ``in the immediate
reach of the authorities.'' </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>``We have said for the last 10 days
that the arrest could take place very quickly,'' her spokeswoman, Florence
Hartmann, said in The Hague, Netherlands. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=3><STRONG>Serbia is under intense
pressure from the European Union and the U.S. to capture Mladic, charged by the
war crimes tribunal with genocide for allegedly ordering the massacre of 8,000
<FONT color=#ff0000>Muslim</FONT> boys and men in Srebrenica and for the 1992-95
siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. </STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>State news agency Tanjug, quoting
Bosnian Serb BN television, earlier reported that the 62-year-old Mladic had
been arrested and was ``being transported'' to the U.S.-run air force base in
Tuzla, eastern Bosnia. Mladic was to be flown to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in
The Hague, the report said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>But Srdjan Djuric, spokesman for
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, told the AP in a statement that Mladic had
not been arrested. He called the Tanjug report a ``manipulation'' meant to
derail the government's efforts to detain him. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>The contradicting reports on Mladic
started with Kostunica's senior aide, Vladeta Jankovic, predicting earlier
Tuesday that Mladic's arrest was imminent. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>``Those who are searching have all
means and are in full swing'' in efforts to capture Mladic, Jankovic said. He
said the government wanted to persuade Mladic to surrender. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>``This problem has to be solved,
and it will be solved in the shortest possible period,'' he said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>However, Jankovic said he had no
information on whether Mladic's hiding place had been located or whether the
government was involved in any negotiations for his surrender. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>The conflicting reports caused
confusion in Belgrade. There have been numerous incorrect reports in the past
that Mladic had been located or captured. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Serbia, seeking to establish closer
ties with the European Union and NATO, faces renewed international isolation if
it fails to extradite Mladic to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>EU officials had given Serbia until
the end of February - in a week - to hand Mladic over to The Hague and
threatened to freeze EU membership talks otherwise. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Hartmann and officials at the EU
and NATO said Tuesday they had no information about Mladic's reported arrest.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>In Washington, State Department
spokesman Adam Ereli said he was not aware Mladic had been arrested or detained.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Mladic, who was head of the Bosnian
Serb army during the war, is No. 2 on the tribunal's most-wanted list after
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who remains at large. Mladic went into
hiding in 2002 after Slobodan Milosevic was ousted as president in 2000.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>The State Department has offered $5
million for the capture of Mladic, who was known to have made forays into
Belgrade even as recently as a few years ago to dine and to watch soccer games.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>Under an indictment last amended in
October 2002, the U.N. war crimes tribunal charged the general with 15 counts of
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in 1992-95. If convicted,
Mladic faces life imprisonment, the tribunal's maximum punishment. The U.N.
court has no death penalty. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif size=2>An estimated 200,000 people died
during the Bosnian war and half the country's prewar population of 4 million
were displaced. <BR></FONT><!-- Overture Widget --></P>
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