BRUSSELS, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- The European Union must push Serbia to hand over war crimes suspects before considering its membership, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
Serbia's application for EU membership was passed on to the European Commission Monday for an official assessment despite its failure to arrest Goran Hadzic and Ratko Mladic.
Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander during the war in Bosnia, is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.
Hadzic, a Croatian Serb, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for persecuting Croat and other non-Serb civilians in Serb-controlled Croatia.
EU foreign ministers have said Serbia's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will be considered at every step on its EU accession path.
Human Rights Watch says both suspects are believed to be within reach of Serbian authorities. Mladic has been free since his indictment in 1995.
"The non-arrest of Mladic would be the worst signal you could give to all future tribunals," tribunal prosecutor Serge Brammertz said Sept. 20.
