Clashes erupt in Serbia protest against Mladic arrest

Clashes erupt in Serbia protest against Mladic arrest

2011-05-30 04:22:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

BELGRADE (BNO NEWS) -- Clashes erupted on Sunday between Serbian police and ultra-nationalist protesters who demonstrated against the arrest of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, CNN reported.

Thousands of demonstrators, including members of Mladic's family, gathered in front of Serbia's parliament building to join the protest organized by the Serbian Radical Party. About half a dozen people were injured after demonstrators on the fringes of the rally threw rocks at police officers, who beat and kicked protesters.

"We are gathered here to peacefully protest the betrayal by (Serbian President) Boris Tadic and his bosses in Brussels," party leaders told the crowd before the clashes erupted. "We have had enough economic humiliation by our enemies, who are destroying our country ... in every way."

Speakers from the nationalist Serbian Radical Party demanded the resignation of President Boris Tadic and called for new elections.

Mladic's son, Darko, described his father as a "freedom fighter" and told the crowd that his father is sick. A medical team, however, determined on Friday that Mladic is healthy enough to be extradited to face a war crimes tribunal, despite suffering from several chronic conditions.

Mladic, who is charged with the murder of nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, was captured last Thursday after nearly 16 years in hiding. He gave himself up without a fight, despite having two handguns, according to Rasim Ljajic, the government minister in charge of searching for fugitive suspected war criminals.

His arrest was welcomed by the international community, but the move could also usher in political backlash from the country's electorate, some of whom consider Mladic a hero. Ljajic called Mladic's capture "a political investment," noting the government's desire to bring the war crimes suspect to justice "even if citizens punish us in the next elections."

It is alleged that, between July 12 and about July 20, 1995, thousands of Bosnian Muslim men were captured by, or surrendered to, Bosnian Serb forces under the command and control of Mladic. Over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners captured in the area around Srebrenica were summarily executed from July 13 to July 19, 1995.

Ratko Mladic is charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility and superior criminal responsibility with genocide, complicity in genocide, persecutions, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, unlawfully inflicting terror upon civilians, cruel treatment, attacks on civilians and taking hostages.

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