JURIST - Paper Chase: Top aide to Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Mladic arrested: reports

[JURIST] Zdravko Tolimir [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF], a former Bosnian Serb general and a UN-indicted [indictment text, PDF] war crimes suspect, has been arrested, according to Thursday media reports. Tolimir, a close aide to war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive], is charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, as well as various other crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive]. News of the arrest broke the same day as Serbia announced the creation of the National Security Council, a special body headed by President Boris Tadic [BBC profile] that will coordinate police and military security resources to hunt suspected war criminals.

Serbia [JURIST news archive] has come under increased international pressure from the European Union (EU) [official website] and the United States to prosecute war criminals and arrest war crimes fugitives. On May 15, the chief war crimes prosecutor of Serbia told reporters that the search [JURIST report] for Mladic "has not stopped for even a moment" and hinted at progress following statements by the EU that EU-Serbia pre-membership negotiations could resume depending on Serbia's commitment to bring war crimes suspects to justice. The negotiations were suspended in May 2005 due to the EU's perception that Serbia was failing to fully cooperate with the ICTY. BBC News has more. AP has addition coverage.

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