[JURIST] Serbia will arrest wanted war crimes fugitive Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and transfer him to the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague within the year, President Boris Tadic [official website] said Friday. Tadic told reporters that he considered the capture of Mladic to be vital to pushing forward Serbia's stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) [Wikipedia backgrounder] with the European Union (EU). Reuters has more.

Serbia [JURIST news archive] has lately come under increased international pressure from the EU and the United States to prosecute war criminals and arrest war crimes fugitives. On May 15, Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor told reporters that the search [JURIST report] for Mladic "has not stopped for even a moment" and hinted at progress following statements by the EU that EU-Serbia pre-membership negotiations could resume depending on Serbia's commitment to bring war crimes suspects to justice.