Mladic captured by chance in lucky raid

When agents descended upon the genocide suspect’s hideout he was carrying two armed pistols but offered no resistance

GENOCIDE SUSPECT Gen Ratko Mladic was arrested during a lucky first raid on his cousin’s property in the Serbian village of Lazarevo which was not prompted by intelligence information that he was there, according to police officials.

They said yesterday that Gen Mladic (69) was making his way into the garden of the house when security agents descended upon it at about 5am on Thursday. He was carrying two loaded pistols but did not try to use them and identified himself when challenged. Earlier reports said he was hiding under the name of Milorad Komadic.

Photographs show the once-burly general looking gaunt and frail and officials speculated that he had rarely ventured outside while living in Lazarevo for about two years.

“Mladic was dressed in several layers of clothes; he was hardly recognisable, he was not attracting attention. He looked pale as if he hadn’t left confined spaces for a very long time,” said Rasim Ljajic, an official in charge of Serbia’s co-operation with the United Nations war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

For about a decade after Bosnia’s 1992-1955 war, Gen Mladic lived in Belgrade and in military bases around Serbia under the protection of loyalist elements in the security forces.

He and his support network have come under increasing pressure since pro-western president Boris Tadic came to power in 2008. His government hopes Gen Mladic’s arrest will accelerate Serbia’s push for European Union membership.

After the general’s capture, Mr Tadic praised his national security council and a special Mladic “action team” that has focused on catching him. The general is accused of responsibility for the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.

The number of people working on the Mladic case has been increased recently by 50 per cent in an attempt to resolve the most contentious issue blocking Belgrade’s EU accession ambitions, said interior minister Ivica Dacic. “Mladic lived alone with his relatives,” he said. “The stories that he had a major ring of security and many helpers turned out not to be true.”

Serbia’s ultra-nationalists have denounced the arrest and impending extradition to the UN court. They have called for a “Stop the Treachery” protest in Belgrade tomorrow.

In the largely Bosnian Serb village of Lazarevo, locals insisted they had no idea that Gen Mladic was living among them, but would have protected him had they known. “We would have hidden him and they would have never been able to find him and arrest him,” said villager Nedeljko Arsic.