Ratko Mladic is still at large – No further approaches from Germany to Serbia!

In the light of the impending visit of the Serbian President, Boris Tadic, today Wednesday in Berlin the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) draws attention to the fact that the wanted Serb leader Ratko Mladic is still at large. „There can be no question of any close relationship with Serbia as long as this main war criminal has not been caught and made responsible for the cruelty of his troops”, said the General Secretary of the human rights organisation, Tilman Zülch. This is the least in the way of respect which is due from the German government towards the victims and survivors of the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It must be assumed that Mladic is living in Serbia or Montenegro with the knowledge of the Serb secret service just like the war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who was apprehended in Belgrade some weeks ago. When one considers the terrible past of Germany under the National Socialists it should be clear that there can be no friendly cooperation with a government which is shielding Mladic.

Many nationalist Serbs still honour the ex-general Mladic as a popular hero. Until only just a few years back he was able to live openly in Serbia. For his service in the Yugoslav army he received until 2002 a full pension. It was under Mladic’s command that the Serb troops overcame Srebrenica in 1995. He it was who gave the order for the murder of 8,376 boys and men in what was then the UN protected zone. The mass shootings are considered the worst crimes against humanity in Europe since 1945.