Members of the Croatian parliament on Thursday welcomed the arrest of the wartime Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide in Bosnia, with some of the MPs saying that he should have been apprehended much earlier.
Frano Matusic of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that the arrest of Mladic was Serbia's obligation.
The news about his apprehension should be hailed because that criminal, who made much evil in Croatia, will finally be brought to justice and extradited to the Hague tribunal, the HDZ parliamentarian said.
Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) leader Josip Friscic said that what Croatia had expected for a long time had eventually happened.
We believe that all those responsible for the military aggression in the 1990s will be brought to justice, the HSS chief said.
Ethnic Serb parliamentary deputy Milorad Pupovac of the SDSS party called the arrest of Mladic as good news for justice and for Serbia and the Serbs.
The burden of Mladic's escape can be taken off the shoulders of the citizens of Serbia and the Serb people, Pupovac said, adding that this was also good news for the region and for those who suspected that the Hague-based ICTY tribunal was not working well.
Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) said that if it had wanted to do so, Serbia could have arrested Mladic ten years ago.
He said that credit for his apprehension should go the the Hague tribunal and the international community.
Boro Grubisic of the regional HDSSB party said that the arrest was now expected as Mladic was "a bargaining chip" which Serbia used when it suited it.
Daniel Srb of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) also believes that Mladic was captured after Serbia was clearly told by the European Union that it could not continue the process of obtaining membership candidate status unless it arrested him.
The Party of Democratic Action (SDAH) in Croatia issued a statement welcoming the arrest of "the biggest war criminal" in the former Yugoslavia.
