A decade since the Srebrenica massacre, the alleged mastermind of the massacre of thousands of Muslim boys and men, Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, still eludes justice.
Believed to be hiding in xSerbia, Mladic remains free in spite of the stated intent of Belgrade to arrest the Balkans' most wanted war-crimes suspect and bring him in to stand trial at The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
International and Serbian officials have been reluctant to share information on Mladic's suspected whereabouts over recent years, but it is obvious that he has enjoyed protection -- even after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in October 2000.
NATO reports on his movement in recent years include just a few "positive identification" instances since Milosevic's fall, including three sightings in Belgrade in 2000 and 2002, when he still enjoyed the protection of "certain circles" in the Yugoslav army.
The head of the Serbia-Montenegro military intelligence, Svetko Kovac, last week confirmed that the army sheltered Mladic until 2002, but that he has since vanished without trace.
Slain Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic's deputy, Cedomir Jovanovic, admitted in a radio interview that authorities knew Mladic's whereabouts until 2002, but added that there was nothing they could do as he was protected by the military.
Djindjic's interior minister Dusan Mihajlovic echoed that in a book, with an explanation that political leaders at the time feared a possible armed conflict between soldiers and police.
In recent weeks the intricate underground network that had since sheltered Mladic finally appears to have started crumbling.
Conservative Prime Minister Vojsilav Kostunica's coalition forced the surrender of more than a dozen suspects to the international tribunal over the past half-year -- and now only Mladic remains.
Government ministers insist that the general will be caught or forced to turn himself in, but they have denied many reports claiming that negotiations with Mladic are under way.
With the EU allowing stabilization and association talks with Serbia-Montenegro in April, and the US dropping the last batch of Milosevic-era sanctions, it appears that this time the West trusts Belgrade.
"We have no reason to doubt Belgrade's intentions to bring Mladic to justice. Maybe not for the anniversary of Srebrenica, but surely by the end of summer," a Western diplomat said.
Optimism that the commander of Europe's worst atrocity since World War II would soon be caught is based on the "behind the scenes" search for Mladic by Serbian and Bosnian Serb authorities.
"Belgrade provided evidence of a serious search and has expressed a political will to apprehend Mladic. Now, the final step is just a matter of time," the diplomat said.
Since he was denied shelter in 2002, Mladic may have skipped to Bosnia, but searching there led by NATO have failed, including one in his former stronghold, the military complex in Han Pijesak.
In Serbia over the past three years, police acted on at least a dozen tips coming trough various channels, but to no avail. Yet the mood is that Mladic's capture, or a negotiated surrender, is imminent.
Many in Serbia, however, still regard Mladic as a hero and believe that he would kill himself rather than face a humiliating trial. If Mladic ever does go on trial, the hearings will bring back horrible memories.
"Brother Serbs, this is a unique opportunity to take vengeance on Turks. Do not miss it," Mladic said on July 11, 1995, after his troops surged into Srebrenica, a UN safe haven in eastern Bosnia.
Around 8,000 Muslim boys and men were slaughtered in the few days after Dutch UN peacekeepers abandoned the town. Women and children were driven out.
"More than anything I want to see Mladic in prison. Thirteen men from my family were killed in the massacre," said Husein Karic, an elderly Srebrenica resident who miraculously escaped death in 1995.
The Hague tribunal has indicted 18 Serbian and Bosnian Serb military and political officials in connection with the Srebrenica massacre. Mladic, his political supremo Radovan Karadzic and the wartime Bosnian Serb army security chief, Zdravko Tolimir, are the only ones who remain at large.
US troops arrested Karadzic's son Sasa Karadzic, 32, in his father's former stronghold of Pale on Thursday and NATO forces say they will keep Sasa in custody until he reveals information which may lead to his father's capture.
"He will be kept in detention for as long as it takes for us to get information we believe he has," NATO spokesman in Sarajevo Derek Chappell said yesterday.
Sasa Karadzic's mother Ljiljana and sister Sonja protested what they called a "kidnapping" and said the family had not had any contact with Radovan Karadzic for years.
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