[JURIST] Members of the Serbia-Montenegro parliament have passed a law to authorize the freezing of assets of fugitives accused of war crimes in an effort to comply with requirements of the European Union [official website] and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Serbia has promised the ICTY [JURIST report] that it will turn over fugitive Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] by the end of April and has pledged to find and extradite four other indictees, including Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile]. The Council of the European Union [official website] had urged Serbia to adopt the measure, which will render indictees unable to access their money or property.

The EU has made handing over Mladic, who has been indicted [text] for crimes against humanity, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [JURIST news archive], a condition of signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement [EU backgrounder] with Serbia and Montenegro. The Southeast European Times has more.