Serbia offers $1.4M for Mladic arrest

BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Serbian officials have offered a $1.4 million reward for information leading to the arrest of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.

The Serbian National Security Council decided Thursday to offer rewards for information about Mladic and two other fugitives being sought by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for war crimes charges in the 1991-95 ethnic wars in the former Yugoslavia, Belgrade’s B92 radio reported Friday.

Serbia offered rewards of $355,000 each for information about Stojan Zupljanin, a former Bosnian Serb police chief; and Goran Hadzic, a former Croatian Serb leader.

Tribunal prosecutors have alleged that Mladic, Zupljanin and Hadzic are hiding in Serbia.

Another key war crime fugitive, former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, doesn't have Serbian citizenship and so the Serbian government had no legal grounds to offer a reward, a government official said. Nevertheless, any information leading to Karadzic’s arrest would be rewarded with $1.4 million, the official said.