Ratko Mladic was arrested Thursday, May 26 after sixteen years on the run. In 2006, journalist Jacques Massé analyzed in his book Our beloved war criminals, the ambiguous attitude of the Serbian authorities on the case of a military commander. For Le Monde. fr, it details the protections Mladic enjoyed since 1995.
Between 1996 and 1997, he has this tolerance. He lives in Han Pijesak, a military complex totally impregnable to forty miles Saravejo in Republika Srpska. Somehow, he is the guarantor of respect for the Dayton accords in Bosnia Serb Republic and the fact that the Serbian military units do not open fire when they see a convoy of NATO .
For all these reasons, Mladic is not a target, like other war criminals. At that time, it was he who protects himself because of his status. Since 1998, the leading nations of NATO in Bosnia are Serbs realize that maintaining the power of wanted war criminals is more a factor of appeasement, but rather a source of tension that blocks implementation of agreements.
They will begin to pursue them. At that time, Mladic takes off. We find its traces in Belgrade. Slobodan Milosevic is still in power and in fact, Mladic is protected by the state, which pays retirement. He is seen several times, including once during a football match in the stadium in Belgrade.
He participated in the ceremonies. In short, it leaves traces. There is no evidence. But among Western diplomats and services, some believe that Zoran Djindjic was assassinated as he prepares to try to deliver Mladic and that is one factor that has weighed into the assassination. He started talking about his arrest with his Western interlocutors.
I absolutely do not believe NATO attempts to arrest Mladic in Bosnia because I'm not sure it's in Bosnia that time. But it allows NATO to show it is activated. However, even then, much of the staff of Mladic was arrested, brought before the ICTY and begins to stand trial. Kostunica, once appointed, Rade Bulatovic load, a survivor of the Milosevic era and the future leader of the Serbian secret service (BIA), to coordinate security records and the arrest of Mladic.
In fact, Bulatovic is in the oven and the mill: it is a group of stalking, but at the same time, it sponsors the structures that allow Ratko Mladic to hide. Things have to be partitioned without doubt, but whenever the group to advance the arrest, the others are accused of progress. It works this way until 2008.
Vojislav Kostunica does not want to deliver Mladic for ideological and pragmatic, because he needs the support of nationalists. But at the same time, he tries to deceive. It happens October 5, 2004, in a barracks of a regiment of the guard, outside of Belgrade. At 9 am, the two soldiers guarding the entrance are liquidated.
There was no burglary or theft. They probably witnessed things they should not see and it was decided to eliminate them. Some think that these boys had witnessed a transfer of Mladic from one place to another. But it is something that has never been explained. In 2008, Kostunica was dismissed and it is an alliance between the Socialists and the Liberals came to power.
Boris Tadic, president since 2004, took in hand the Serb secret services and support to get Mladic and Karadzic. They arrest Karadzic. If we compare the current sequence, they do stop when there is a strong European challenge on the eve of signing the Association Agreement. Unlike Kostunica, Tadic is convinced that we must arrest Mladic.
It is at this point that the structure that protects Mladic - a structure that was condoned by Rade Bulatovic - is changing. Mladic returned to a much more narrow, composed of members of his family and some friends. Then, throughout the years 2008-2010, the influence of his supporters down.
This is due both because age and its allies are no longer in office, but also because a new generation moves to the Ministry of Interior and services [After the departure of Kostunica, Rade Bulatovic is replaced head of the BIA by Sasha Vukadinovic]. In fact, the porosity between his supporters and the state is not as strong.
In December 2010, one of my interlocutors told me that the Serbian authorities had given assurances that they would eventually stop. They had located and they were waiting for the best time possible, which is consistent with what is happening today. Afterwards, they let go at a time when it is almost bedridden.
They waited until the last moment. At one time it was rumored that he had been transferred to Russia and Belarus. But this was never proven. The real complicity of foreign powers is between 1995 and 1997. Nobody had any interest to get him because at the time, it is an indispensable interlocutor.
It is the same between Richard Holbrooke, the American diplomat who negotiated the Dayton accords, and Radovan Karadzic. When you negotiate with someone, you're not going to kill him in the minute that follows. Finally, if Mladic had been taken much earlier, a factor that could weigh in the questioning of Serbia in the Bosnian war, an officer since he was paid by the Serbian army.
So, it would have affected all negotiations on war reparations. The failure to stop it avoids asking those questions. Today they have been adjudicated and no return back. Stabilizing Serbia by avoiding a monstrous debt was imperative. If there was a duplicity of foreign powers, it is there.
Interview by Thomas Baïetto 
Between 1996 and 1997, he has this tolerance. He lives in Han Pijesak, a military complex totally impregnable to forty miles Saravejo in Republika Srpska. Somehow, he is the guarantor of respect for the Dayton accords in Bosnia Serb Republic and the fact that the Serbian military units do not open fire when they see a convoy of NATO .
For all these reasons, Mladic is not a target, like other war criminals. At that time, it was he who protects himself because of his status. Since 1998, the leading nations of NATO in Bosnia are Serbs realize that maintaining the power of wanted war criminals is more a factor of appeasement, but rather a source of tension that blocks implementation of agreements.
They will begin to pursue them. At that time, Mladic takes off. We find its traces in Belgrade. Slobodan Milosevic is still in power and in fact, Mladic is protected by the state, which pays retirement. He is seen several times, including once during a football match in the stadium in Belgrade.
He participated in the ceremonies. In short, it leaves traces. There is no evidence. But among Western diplomats and services, some believe that Zoran Djindjic was assassinated as he prepares to try to deliver Mladic and that is one factor that has weighed into the assassination. He started talking about his arrest with his Western interlocutors.
I absolutely do not believe NATO attempts to arrest Mladic in Bosnia because I'm not sure it's in Bosnia that time. But it allows NATO to show it is activated. However, even then, much of the staff of Mladic was arrested, brought before the ICTY and begins to stand trial. Kostunica, once appointed, Rade Bulatovic load, a survivor of the Milosevic era and the future leader of the Serbian secret service (BIA), to coordinate security records and the arrest of Mladic.
In fact, Bulatovic is in the oven and the mill: it is a group of stalking, but at the same time, it sponsors the structures that allow Ratko Mladic to hide. Things have to be partitioned without doubt, but whenever the group to advance the arrest, the others are accused of progress. It works this way until 2008.
Vojislav Kostunica does not want to deliver Mladic for ideological and pragmatic, because he needs the support of nationalists. But at the same time, he tries to deceive. It happens October 5, 2004, in a barracks of a regiment of the guard, outside of Belgrade. At 9 am, the two soldiers guarding the entrance are liquidated.
There was no burglary or theft. They probably witnessed things they should not see and it was decided to eliminate them. Some think that these boys had witnessed a transfer of Mladic from one place to another. But it is something that has never been explained. In 2008, Kostunica was dismissed and it is an alliance between the Socialists and the Liberals came to power.
Boris Tadic, president since 2004, took in hand the Serb secret services and support to get Mladic and Karadzic. They arrest Karadzic. If we compare the current sequence, they do stop when there is a strong European challenge on the eve of signing the Association Agreement. Unlike Kostunica, Tadic is convinced that we must arrest Mladic.
It is at this point that the structure that protects Mladic - a structure that was condoned by Rade Bulatovic - is changing. Mladic returned to a much more narrow, composed of members of his family and some friends. Then, throughout the years 2008-2010, the influence of his supporters down.
This is due both because age and its allies are no longer in office, but also because a new generation moves to the Ministry of Interior and services [After the departure of Kostunica, Rade Bulatovic is replaced head of the BIA by Sasha Vukadinovic]. In fact, the porosity between his supporters and the state is not as strong.
In December 2010, one of my interlocutors told me that the Serbian authorities had given assurances that they would eventually stop. They had located and they were waiting for the best time possible, which is consistent with what is happening today. Afterwards, they let go at a time when it is almost bedridden.
They waited until the last moment. At one time it was rumored that he had been transferred to Russia and Belarus. But this was never proven. The real complicity of foreign powers is between 1995 and 1997. Nobody had any interest to get him because at the time, it is an indispensable interlocutor.
It is the same between Richard Holbrooke, the American diplomat who negotiated the Dayton accords, and Radovan Karadzic. When you negotiate with someone, you're not going to kill him in the minute that follows. Finally, if Mladic had been taken much earlier, a factor that could weigh in the questioning of Serbia in the Bosnian war, an officer since he was paid by the Serbian army.
So, it would have affected all negotiations on war reparations. The failure to stop it avoids asking those questions. Today they have been adjudicated and no return back. Stabilizing Serbia by avoiding a monstrous debt was imperative. If there was a duplicity of foreign powers, it is there.
Interview by Thomas Baïetto
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