Serbian President Boris Tadic told Monday the visiting delegation of the Dutch Parliament's Committee on European Affairs that Serbia will do everything to complete its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The talk focused on bilateral relations, Serbia's EU integration and situation in the region, Tadic's office said in a release.

Brammertz: Belgrade could do more
Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Serge Brammertz said in The Hague on Monday that there is no alternative to the arrest of Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, that the recommendations he delivered in February have not been met yet, and that the report on Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal will be completed after the talks with the Serbian authorities.

Brammertz, who is to visit Belgrade on Tuesday, said that he will tell Serbian officials that Belgrade could have done more and can still significantly improve its cooperation with the ICTY.

The failure to arrest Mladic and Hadzic remains the greatest obstacle to the cooperation between Serbia and the ICTY. Hence, during my visit to Belgrade I will repeat that the ICTY's stand remains the same as in February- there is no altenative to the arrest of Mladic and Hadzic, Brammertz told Tanjug.

I will carefully listen to the services in charge of searching for the fugitives in particular, so as to determine how much has been done since my previous visit, and then the conclusions will be reached, Brammertz said underlining that regular constructive talks in Belgrade do not impede his impartial judgement.

At the previous sitting of the UN Security Council, certain recommendations pertaining to the country's cooperation with the ICTY were delivered. The Security Council stressed the need for greater resources and comprehensive approach, but also pointed to the fact that the country should have made greater progress as regards the investigation and support networks. In that respect, the tribunal's expectations have not been met yet, and I will be discussing these matters with the relevant authorities in Belgrade, he said.

The ICTY recognizes the strong commitment to meeting these conditions, but it is not my job to deliver a decision on that basis, but rather taking into account what has been achieved in the field. My estimation will be based on facts, he noted.

The fact that only two ICTY fugitives have remained at large is illustrative of the more efficient EU policy which has linked the EU accession process to the full cooperation with the ICTY, Brammertz underlined, adding that the arrest of Mladic and Hadzic will not be an easy task, but that, on the other hand, certain opportunities have been missed, like the one in 2006.

According to him, there are reasons to believe that Mladic obtained the intelligence prior to search operations. There are also reasons to believe that many people in Serbia are supporting him and offering him certain assistance, Brammertz noted.

When asked what would happen if Mladic and Hadzic were not arrested before the ICTY's planned closure, Brammertz underlined that in that case, another international mechanism would be established.

According to Brammertz, the fact that people who back the arrest of Mladic are still the minority indicates that the majority of Serbian citizens have not yet grasped that there is nothing particularly heroic in what Mladic did in Srebrenica.

Djukic-Dejanovic: Serbia puts maximum effort in its cooperation with ICTY
Serbia is making maximum effort for its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to be as efficient as possible, Parliament Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic said during a meeting with the Dutch parliament committee on European affairs.

Serbia's goal is to adopt the required laws relating to the European agenda as soon as possible and ensure their efficient implementation, Djukic-Dejanovic told the Dutch delegation.

Better relations in the Balkans and the region's efforts to join the EU are extremely important for the stability of the entire Europe, Djukic-Dejanovic and the Dutch representatives agreed.

She focused particularly on the ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and Serbia and better cooperation between the two parliaments.

The Dutch delegation was interested to hear about the direction of Serbia's election system reform, how many of the European Commission's recommendations have been adopted and the public opinion when it comes to EU accession.

Djukic-Dejanovic noted that the path to the EU cannot be reversed and that legal standardization has begun.

"The young people are interested in Europe and patience is something we will not lack, but there is no such thing as a one-way relation," she added.

The meeting was attended also by head of the Serbian parliament committee on foreign affairs Dragoljub Micunovic and Serbian Ambassador to the Netherlands Cedomir Radojkovic.