NPWJ calls on EU governments to keep Serbia's EU-accession process conditional on the arrest of Ratko Mladic

In an open letter, signed by numerous public figures, former senior ICTY staff, representatives of various organisations and academia, as well as individuals from across Europe, North America and the Western Balkans, No Peace Without Justice calls on all EU Member States to keep the ratification of Serbia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union conditional upon the arrest and transfer of Ratko Mladic for trial in The Hague.
 
EU foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss Serbia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement at their meeting today, 14 June 2010. There is increasing pressure on the Netherlands to drop its insistence on conditionality and to vote along with the other member states to start the ratification process after the ICTY Prosecutor has indicated that Serbia is making progress towards arresting General Mladic.
 
Declaration by Sergio Stanzani and Niccolo' Figa-Talamanca, President and Secretary-General of No Peace Without Justice:
 
"As we approach the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the fact that its chief architect, General Mladic, indicted in 1996 by the ICTY for genocide and crimes against humanity, still remains at large today is a profound moral failure for Serbia and for the international community; most importantly, it is an affront to the memory of those who died and to the suffering of those who survived.
 
The European Union should take all possible measures to ensure Serbia’s fulfilment of its international obligation to secure the arrest and transfer of General Mladic to the ICTY to face trial, alongside former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
 
This would bring to justice Europe's last at-large architect of genocide, and also finally allow the current Government in Belgrade to close the accounts with the past and confirm its path towards the assertion of the rule of law, justice and full accountability before the international community and its own citizens".
 
 
Download the open letter
Find also here an open letter signed by several human rights and other non-governmental organisations from Serbia, asking their Government for the immediate arrest of Ratko Mladic
 
 
For further information, contact Alison Smith on asmith@npwj.org or +32-2-548 39 12 or Nicola Giovannini on ngiovannini@npwj.org or +32-2-548-39 15.