[JURIST] International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] said Friday that Serbia must do more to apprehend fugitive war crimes suspects before she can give a positive report on the country's work with the ICTY to the European Union. Del Ponte has long criticized Serbia for its seeming reluctance to cooperate with the ICTY. Last week, she chided Serbian authorities [JURIST report] for failing to bring to justice Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and three other accused war criminals who are believed to be hiding in that country, saying that Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal is "still too slow and not yet sufficient."

Serbia said in September it would increase efforts [JURIST report] to locate and arrest Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder], former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic [JURIST report], and Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [ICTY indictment] in order to receive a favorable report from Del Ponte at her meeting with EU officials concerning the EU's pending pre-membership deal with the country. The EU has made Serbia's cooperation with the ICTY a key element of its membership negotiations. AFP has more. ADNKronos has additional coverage.