EU halts Serbia talks over failure to deliver Mladic

The EU has kept its word and suspended talks with Serbia after the country failed to honour its pledge to hand over genocide suspect Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal by the end of April. For Belgrade’s daily papers it was a foregone conclusion. “Europe punishes Serbia” read one headline.

The chief UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte said Serbia had misled her when it promised last month that Mladic’s arrest was imminent. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, who led the negotiating team, has resigned. He accused his own government of failing to keep its promise to secure the conditions necesssary for the continuation of talks. Mladic is charged with genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo.

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