The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Office of the Prosecutor has filed a motion to amend the indictment against Ratko Mladic, former Commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army, the ICTY said in a statement on Thursday.
ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in Belgrade today that he had requested that the indictment be amended so that if arrested, Mladic could undergo a speedy trial.
The Office of the Prosecutor called on Serbia and the international community to take the necessary measures to secure Mladic's arrest which it said was long overdue.
Brammertz reiterated he was optimistic about Mladic's arrest. I still have no reason to believe he is outside Serbia, Brammertz said in Belgrade. All the people I talked to share my opinion, he said.
The proposed amended indictment charges Mladic with 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war in relation to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, the terror campaign against civilians during the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995, the taking of UN personnel as hostages in May and June 1995, and the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995.
As set out in the indictment, Mladic, together with Radovan Karadzic, was a key member of an overarching joint criminal enterprise the objective of which was the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina that Bosnian Serbs claimed for themselves.
"To achieve this aim, Ratko Mladic acted in concert with others to commit crimes in different locations and at different times as alleged in the indictment," the tribunal said in the statement.
As the most senior officer of the Bosnian Serb Army during the war, Mladic was the superior of members of the Bosnian Serb Army and other Serb forces integrated into or subordinated to the Bosnian Serb Army, the statement said.
"As such, he had effective control over the forces who participated in the crimes alleged. Ratko Mladic is charged with planning, instigating and ordering each of the crimes," the tribunal said.
Apart from Mladic, the only remaining ICTY indictee at large is Goran Hadzic, former prime minister of the self-proclaimed Serb Autonomous District (SAO) of Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem and later president of the so-called Republic of Serb Krajina in Croatia.
