[ti:Arrest of Mladic Brings Serbia a Step Closer to EU] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:IN THE NEWS] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is IN THE NEWS [00:06.34]in VOA Special English. [00:09.68]This week, Serbia [00:11.31]arrested one of Europe's [00:13.20]most wanted men. [00:15.01]Former Bosnian Serb general [00:17.84]Ratko Mladic spent sixteen years [00:21.23]in hiding. [00:22.98]He is accused of genocide [00:25.11]and other crimes during the war [00:27.91]fought after Bosnia-Herzegovina [00:30.78]declared its independence. [00:33.48]The International Criminal Tribunal [00:36.65]for the former Yugoslavia [00:38.56]announced charges against [00:40.83]Mr. Mladic in nineteen ninety-five. [00:44.14]He is charged with the killing [00:46.68]of eight thousand Bosnian Muslim men [00:50.36]and boys that year at Srebrenica, [00:53.58]a town on the border of Serbia. [00:56.97]Srebrenica was supposed [00:59.13]to have been protected [01:00.51]as a United Nations "safe area." [01:04.35]Mr. Mladic is also accused of ordering [01:08.18]or carrying out war crimes [01:11.12]during the three years [01:12.85]in which Sarajevo [01:14.80]was surrounded and attacked. [01:17.29]His son, Darko Mladic, says [01:20.87]his father is not in good health. [01:23.80]He also says his father believes [01:27.11]he is not guilty of the charges. [01:30.08]But on Friday, a court [01:32.78]in Belgrade ruled that Ratko Mladic [01:36.21]is healthy enough to be tried [01:38.64]in the Netherlands. [01:40.63]His lawyer said [01:42.04]he would appeal the ruling. [01:44.22]Russia, an ally of Serbia, [01:47.36]has called for a fair trial. [01:49.75]The capture of Mr. Mladic [01:53.23]was a condition for Serbia [01:55.36]to become a candidate [01:57.06]to join the European Union. [01:59.70]Another condition has been [02:02.20]the capture of former [02:03.93]Croatian Serb political leader [02:06.93]Goran Hadzic, [02:08.32]who has yet to be arrested. [02:10.32]The wartime political leader [02:12.97]of the Bosnian Serbs, [02:14.51]Radovan Karadzic, was captured [02:17.15]in two thousand eight. [02:18.94]He also faced charges in The Hague, [02:22.37]but his trial was suspended. [02:24.72]Former Serbian president [02:27.30]Slobodan Milosevic also went [02:29.99]before the tribunal, [02:31.64]but he died during his trial. [02:34.53]Serbia has been under intense [02:38.06]international pressure [02:39.75]to arrest Ratko Mladic. [02:42.60]President Boris Tadic announced [02:45.75]that he was arrested Thursday morning. [02:48.49]The former general was [02:51.08]at a farmhouse in a village about [02:53.97]one hundred kilometers from Belgrade. [02:56.99]The arrest happened during a visit [03:00.18]by Catherine Ashton, [03:01.93]the foreign policy chief [03:04.08]for the European Union. [03:06.37]But President Tadic dismissed [03:08.90]the suggestion that the government [03:11.30]could have acted sooner. [03:13.78]BORIS TADIC: "We are not making [03:14.64]calculations when and how to deliver. [03:18.47]We are doing that because [03:20.97]we truly believe this is [03:23.26]in accordance with our law." [03:24.71]The Serbian president said [03:26.84]there will be an investigation [03:28.93]into how Mr. Mladic [03:31.08]avoided arrest for so long. [03:33.57]Kada Hotic from the Mothers [03:36.60]of Srebrenica Association [03:38.39]accused Serbia of knowingly [03:41.67]hiding a man she calls a "monster." [03:45.32]Still, she and other family members [03:48.84]of victims welcomed the arrest, [03:52.22]while some Bosnian Serbs [03:54.41]expressed anger. [03:56.01]JAMES KER-LINDSAY: "Many Serbs, yes, [03:57.76]do regard Ratko Mladic [03:59.81]as some sort of hero." [04:01.11]James Ker-Lindsay is an expert [04:03.96]on southeast Europe [04:05.70]at the London School of Economics. [04:08.14]JAMES KER-LINDSAY: "They look to the events [04:09.33]that took place in Bosnia [04:10.53]and rather than seeing him [04:12.42]as a military leader of an act [04:15.02]of aggression rather view him [04:16.91]as being the defender [04:18.05]of the Bosnian Serb people. [04:19.64]So in that sense, [04:21.45]there is a certain degree [04:22.95]of latent support for him." [04:24.33]But Mr. Ker-Lindsay says [04:26.73]Serbs are conflicted because [04:29.27]they understand that their country's [04:31.42]future has to be a part of Europe. [04:34.60]JAMES KER-LINDSAY: "It's not about [04:35.46]forgetting what took place [04:36.55]in Bosnia or, indeed, [04:38.55]the entire Western Balkans [04:40.10]in the nineteen nineties. [04:41.13]But it's about recognizing [04:42.39]that Serbia's got to atone for this [04:44.82]pay its price and move on. [04:47.02]And people understand that [04:48.80]Mladic is absolutely central [04:50.69]to that process." [04:51.88]And that's IN THE NEWS [04:57.48]in VOA Special English. [05:00.10]I'm Steve Ember.