Forty per cent of Croatia’s citizens are satisfied with the recent arrest of Serb military commander accused of war crimes, Ratko Mladic.

Some 29 per cent are delighted by his arrest, while 21 per cent are indifferent, the Ipsos Puls agency survey shows.

In Serbia, a third of the citizens are embittered, 25 per cent are dissatisfied, while 26 per cent are indifferent. Younger people are more often indifferent than the older.

More than half of the surveyed in Serbia consider Mladic a hero, while 45 per cent think that the arrest is useful to Serbia. Mladic was arrested in the Serbian village Lazarevo last Thursday, after he had spent 16 years on the run.

In both states, a large number of the surveyed think that Mladic was arrested because of Serbia’s candidacy for the European Union – 67 per cent of Serbs and 78 per cent of Croatians.

The majority of Serbs think that secret services were helping Mladic, while 81 per cent of Croatians are of the same opinion.