BRUSSELS, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- NATO is in the dark about the whereabouts of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, the alleged war criminal reported to have been captured Tuesday.
With Serb newspapers claiming the general has already been arrested and government officials strenuously denying the claims, complete confusion appears to reign in Belgrade.
NATO, the military alliance that helped bring an end to the Balkan wars of the 1990s and has been active in the hunt for Mladic, is in no position to shed more light on the matter. "NATO has no information related to the possible arrest of Gen. Mladic," an official told reporters Wednesday. "Unfortunately, he has not been arrested, but we would like to see him and Radovan Karazdic in The Hague as soon as possible."
Carla del Ponte, the United Nations' chief prosecutor at the Dutch tribunal also scotched claims Mladic had been captured. "Mladic remains at large ... the false rumours spread yesterday from Belgrade about the arrest of Mladic have absolutely no basis whatsoever."
Mladic has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity by the international criminal tribunal in The Hague. In particular he alleged to have ordered the slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim mean and children at Srebrenica in 1995.
