U.S. envoy urges Serbia arrest Mladic

BELGRADE, Serbia, July 27 (UPI) -- A U.S. envoy said Thursday Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic hinders Serbia's plans to join NATO and the European Union.

"The United States wants to see Serbia in the European Union and NATO. The only big obstacle is Ratko Mladic being at large. He keeps the entire country hostage and is hindering your further progress," John Clint Williamson, the U.S. ambassador in charge of war crimes issues, told reporters in Belgrade.

Following talks with Serbia's President Boris Tadic, Premier Vojislav Kostunica and Vladimir Vukcevic, the special war crimes prosecutor, Williamson said, "It is important that Mladic is brought to justice along with others responsible for war crimes."

Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb military leader, has been on the run since 1995, when U.N. tribunal charged him with genocide and war crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia from 1991-95.

The charges against Mladic include the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995 and a 3-year siege and shelling of Sarajevo.