Karadzic, Mladic move to top of list

BELGRADE - The handover of Slobodan Milosevic to the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague strikes one name from the top of the tribunal's wanted list, but plenty of others remain.

Buoyed by the fact that Western pressure has helped to send the former Yugoslav President to its detention unit, the tribunal is likely to push with renewed vigour for the arrest and transfer of other ringleaders in a decade of Balkan wars.

Now indisputably at the top of the list are Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both accused of genocide - the tribunal's most serious charge.

Former political leader Karadzic is most often reported to be in the Serb part of Bosnia. Mladic, the ex-military commander, was spotted in Belgrade while Milosevic was in power.

Yugoslav officials insist he is no longer on their territory, a claim met with scepticism by some foreign diplomats and international officials.

A total of 37 people wanted by the tribunal are still at large, 13 of them on secret "sealed" indictments, officials say.

The main havens for war crimes suspects have been the Bosnian Serb republic and what remains of Yugoslavia.

Tribunal officials also believe at least some suspects move between the two.

But the decision of Belgrade's reformist leadership to hand over the man who was once a national hero means the days of safety for any suspects on Yugoslav territory - estimated at somewhere around a dozen - look well and truly numbered.

"We certainly hope this is not the end of the matter," said tribunal spokesman Jim Landale. "There are a number of fugitives who are charged with extremely serious crimes who are still at large and we will be pressing for their transfer to the tribunal at the earliest possible opportunity."

With Yugoslavia on the path to full cooperation with the tribunal, the Bosnian Serb Republic may look like the last hiding place for those who have been indicted.

Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic recently said it would soon have a draft law on cooperating with the tribunal.

"The Serb Republic is aware of the negative consequences of ignoring the tribunal."

- REUTERS

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