Serbia has arrested a former Bosnian Serb army officer suspected of helping top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic evade justice as part of a move to crack down on his network, a Serbian court official said on Thursday. Sasa Badnjar, a former member of Mladic's security, was arrested on Monday in Belgrade and detained for a month pending investigation, radio B92 reported.Serbia and Montenegro Defence Minister Zoran Stankovic said Badnjar was among 50 people listed in a military intelligence report as suspected of helping Mladic hide after he was last seen in army facilities in mid-2002. The secret report was presented to Serbian officials earlier this month and was compiled in an effort to show the army is earnestly trying to locate the fugitive and to disprove accusations some renegade elements were still sheltering him.
Badnjar was the second suspected aide to be arrested since December, when Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic warned all helpers of the former Bosnian Serb army commander they would be prosecuted. Serbia has been under increasing Western criticism that it was not doing enough to bring the top fugitive to justice and U.N. war crimes Prosecutor Carla del Ponte said in Belgrade this week she wanted to see some concrete action. Delivering Mladic to The Hague is key to Serbia's efforts to forge closer links with the European Union and NATO.
Mladic was twice indicted for genocide almost 11 years ago, for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo which claimed over 10,000 lives and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.