BRUSSELS, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- An EU commissioner said Monday a new Serbian government should arrest and hand over war crimes suspects to a U.N. court to bring Belgrade closer to Brussels.
Olli Rehn, the European Union's enlargement commissioner, told reporters in Brussels he is optimistic "democratic forces" will win Serbia's parliamentary elections Sunday, Serbian radio-television RTS said.
Rehn said he plans to visit Belgrade after the elections to meet the new government he said should make it clear it is "resolute" about the arrest and transfer all the six remaining war crimes suspects to The Hague.
The six suspects include former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic and his political leader, Radovan Karadzic, sought on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1991-95 Yugoslav ethnic wars.
Accusations against Mladic link him to the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995 when Serbian forces overran Dutch U.N. peacekeepers, and to the three-year siege and shelling of Sarajevo.
The European Union put off association talks with Serbia in May after Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica failed to keep his promise to arrest and hand over Mladic.
