The United States issued a tough warning to Serbia and Croatia Friday saying that it would block their bid to join Nato and threatening financial sanctions unless indicted war crimes suspects are handed over.
"It is high time that these war criminals be brought to justice," Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told reporters ahead of a three-day trip to the region next week.
He was referring to Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic as well as Radovan Karadzic, the former political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Croatian general Ante Gotovina. All three fugitives are wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for atrocities committed during the 1991-95 war in the Balkans.
"It does not stand up to argue that somehow in that very small country (Serbia), the Serb authorities cannot find General Mladic or Radovan Karadzic," Burns said.
"Until they bring them to justice they will not have a normal relationship with the United States and they will not have a partnership relationship, much less membership, in the future, with Nato," he added.
He said Washington would also block Croatia's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation until Gotovina was handed over to The Hague.
"Somebody has to stand up for the families of the victims of 10 years ago," he said.
Burns noted that unless clear progress was made by Belgrade and Zagreb in handing over war crimes suspects, Washington would also "draw the necessary conclusions" when it came to considering financial aid. "I can tell you we will have a very tough-minded view of this," he said. "We have to judge countries by their actions, not by their words, so we will draw the necessary conclusions."
Mladic and Karadzic are the international war crimes tribunal's most wanted fugitives. They stand accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, notably over the killing of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica - the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II.
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