By Ivana Sekularac
BELGRADE (Reuters) - United Nations chief prosecutor SergeBrammertz said on Wednesday he was optimistic Serbia wouldsucceed in hunting the two remaining war crimes fugitives.
Brammertz's statement on Serbia's cooperation with thetribunal in The Hague is seen as crucial for Serbia's path toEuropean Union membership, set as a strategic goal by thepro-Western government.
"Allow me to express careful optimism that the search forremaining fugitives Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic will besuccessful," Brammertz told reporters after meeting Serbianofficials.
It was Brammertz's first trip to Belgrade since the Julyarrest of genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic, the wartimeBosnian Serb leader, a breakthrough in Serbia's cooperationwith the Hague-based war crimes court after years of patchyprogress.
"The arrest of the two remaining fugitives is the keyobjective of our cooperation," Brammertz said.
The court wants to bring to justice Bosnian Serb GeneralRatko Mladic, indicted for genocide for the 1995 Srebrenicamassacre of 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo inwhich about 14,000 people were killed. The other fugitive isCroatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, indicted for crimes againsthumanity during the 1991-95 Croatian war.
Serbian officials have said they have intensified effortsto capture the two men in order to help Serbia's move toward EUmembership.
Serbia signed an association agreement with the EuropeanUnion in April but the 27-nation bloc said it would wait forBrammertz's report on whether Serbia fully cooperates with thetribunal before allowing it to gain trade benefits.
The formal move by the EU could come as early as September15 at a foreign ministers' meeting.
"We expect the foreign ministers to value appropriately ourefforts and all that we have done so far regarding cooperationwith the tribunal," Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's point man for thecooperation with The Hague, said after meeting Brammertz.
"For the first time my team did not have to explain that weare determined to carry out the arrests," Serbia's war crimesprosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic was quoted as saying by the B92radio. "He (Brammertz) is aware of our efforts."
Diplomats say most EU member states want Serbia to moveahead on the EU path for the sake of stability in the Balkans.But the Netherlands, where the tribunal is based, insists thatthe remaining fugitives should be arrested before the accordbenefits come into force.
(Additional reporting by Ljilja Cvekic. Editing by JanetLawrence)
