Here's the latest on Serbian public reaction to the airing of a videotape of Serb units massacring Bosnian men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995. The suggestion is being made numerous places that this airing is laying the political groundwork for Belgrade to finally turn over Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, alleged to be protected by Serb military officials, to the Hague.

Human rights activist Frank Tiggelar, who helps runs the multimedia outfit Domovina, writes to an international justice listserv, that

B92's Danijel Bukomirovic, speaking in Dutch on NOS Journaal at 20:00 CET, suggested between the lines the Serbian government had had a hand in the surfacing of the 'executions tape.' The dire economic needs of the country make EU accession talks the only option for a better future, but oppositon amongst a majority of the poulation against the ICTY's demands for the extradition of indicted war criminals stands in the way. A mood swing amongst a public in denial of the Srebrenica massacres would pave the way towards the extradition of Ratko Mladic...

(Serbian prime minister Vojislav] Kostunica yesterday: "For public opinion it was important that we reacted immediately"). This theory would also explain the incredibly speedy identification and arrest of the Skorpioni visible on the tape.

Bukomirovic said he expects the arrest of Mladic in a matter of weeks now - which, if true, would land the former VRS commander in The Hague before the tenth anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

Posted by Laura at June 3, 2005 04:56 PM