![Hague to Serbia: deliver war criminal Mladic before year-end or risk EU bid](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Stankovic said Friday on Serbian state television that Theodor Meron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive], had threatened Serbia with "excommunicat[ion] from Euro-Atlantic integration" if it failed to turn over indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder] to the Hague-based court before the end of the year. Meron visited Belgrade Friday to express his impatience [JURIST report] with delays in the arrest and transfer process. Meron said that Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica promised him that Serbia will fufill their obligations to the international community as the country struggles to gain membership to the European Union [official website]. Reports surfaced earlier this year that covert members of the Serbia-Montenegro army are protecting Mladic [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.