By Daisy Ayliffe - 22nd February 2006
Conflicting reports over the arrest of Ratko Mladic caused alarm in Belgrade - a week before an EU decision on whether to continue dialogue with Serbia over possible membership.
A flood of contradictory reports made it unclear as to the whereabouts of Europe’s most wanted war crimes suspect.
Serbian newspapers have debated for days whether Mladic would be in the Hague in time to avert suspension of EU talks with Belgrade.
Suspension would deal a body blow to the minority coalition government.
The Bosnian Serb war commander is wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague.
Serb radio first said he had been arrested in Tuzla on Tuesday night, while Serb TV later reported he had been seized in Belgrade.
One government official rebuffed the reports as "manipulation” and “misinformation.”
UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte also denied the arrest.
Meanwhile another government official insisted Mladic had been located and said talks were under way on how to arrest him.
The general has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
This includes the massacre of at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from the town of Srebrenica in 1995.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's army chief throughout the war, Mladic came to symbolise the Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Croats and Muslims.
Having lived freely in Belgrade for some time, Mladic disappeared when former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001.
Del Ponte has been lobbying Brussels to pressure Serbia to arrest Mladic by the end of the month or risk a halt to negotiations on possible EU entry.
Last month EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said suspending negotiations was an option if Belgrade did not co-operate.
Del Ponte added that Mladic was hiding in Serbia and accused elements in the Serbian army of sheltering him.
"Mladic is in Serbia, and as you know, Mladic is protected with power of the army," she told reporters.
Rehn is set to present a report to EU foreign ministers next Monday or Tuesday assessing whether Serbia is cooperating with the tribunal.
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