Serbian security forces raided a hotel in downtown Belgrade on Tuesday in a bid to track down Bosnian genocide suspect Ratko Mladic, an official said.
"Based on information we have obtained, we have searched a hotel and some neighboring buildings," said Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's top official in charge of cooperation with the UN war crimes court that has indicted Mladic.
"These are regular activities as a part of our search for war crimes suspects," he said.
Asked whether the raid was aimed at finding wartime Bosnian Serb military commander Mladic or five other suspects still at large, Ljajic confirmed it was for "Mladic" but refused to elaborate.
demand
Outgoing Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic told lawmakers in parliament that the morning raid was "executed upon an investigative judge's demand by military police units."
"It was established that no suspect sought by The Hague tribunal is hiding there," Serbia's team for cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said in a statement.
A journalist reported there were no security patrols visible in the area around the Dedinje hotel in central Belgrade, which has been a home to military personnel left homeless from the 1990s wars in the Balkans.
Earlier on Tuesday, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said there had been some progress in the hunt for Mladic, who has been at large since 1995.
The search for the former commander, who faces indictments for war crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992 to 1995 war, "has not stopped for even a moment," he said, adding: "You will soon be able to see."
hiding
Mladic has been in hiding since he was indicted by The Hague-based ICTY for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, notably over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males -- the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.
Belgrade has persistently denied knowing his whereabouts although the UN court's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, insists he has been hiding under the protection of Serbian military and, at times, political backers.
The EU froze talks on closer ties with Serbia last May over its failure to cooperate fully with the UN court and arrest top fugitives, notably Mladic.
Tuesday's operation to track him down came as Serbia's parliament was meeting to approve a new, relatively pro-European government, a day before a visit to Belgrade by EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn.
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