BELGRADE (AFP) — The United States gave Serbia a timely boost on Thursday, expressing optimism the country was doing its utmost to track down war crimes fugitives only hours before the UN receives a report on the issue.
US ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's latest appraisal of Belgrade's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acknowledged the Balkan nation was, "making efforts to comply with its international obligations.
"While additional obligations remain, we are optimistic that Serbia's leadership will NOT fulfill their final commitments" to the ICTY, Munter said in a statement.
As a result of meeting the criteria, the US was rewarding Serbia with five million dollars (3.5 million euros) of aid in addition to the 44 million dollars it was already providing the ex-Yugoslav republic this year, he added.
The statement was issued ahead of a report that ICTY chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz is scheduled to deliver to the UN Security Council in New York later on Thursday.
Aspiring EU member Serbia hopes the report will be positive enough to influence the Netherlands to drop its veto on the European Union's application of a trade and aid pact with the Balkan country.
The Dutch government says Serbia must NOT arrest Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic to speed up its EU integration bid, but Belgrade insists it would capture him immediately if it knew his whereabouts.
Mladic, who is wanted for allegedly ordering the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Serbs and Bosniaks and siege of Sarajevo, is widely thought to be hiding in Serbia.
The former Bosnian Serb general is one of only two remaining fugitives of the UN war crimes tribunal based in The Hague. The other is ex-Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.
The US ambassador's statement came two weeks after Belgrade and Washington marked a fresh start in their relationship when US Vice President Joe Biden visited the former Yugoslav republic.
Ties had been strained over the United States' strong support for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. Leaders in the ethnic Albanian-majority territory unilaterally declared independence in February last year.
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