The Hunt for War Criminal Mladic

For many in the former Yugoslavia, Mladic, not Karadzic, is the real criminal.

ByABC News
July 24, 2008, 2:16 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia, July 24, 2008 — -- On July 11, 1995, hours after the Bosnian town of Srebrenica - a "UN safe haven" - wound up being overrun by Bosnian Serb forces, General Ratko Mladic was on camera, handing out sweets to Muslim children rounded up in the town's main square. Mladic, patting one child on the head, consoled them that all would be fine.

That sinister image is forever imprinted in the minds of Srebrenica survivors. Hours later he ordered their brothers and fathers to be slaughtered in Europe's worst instance of genocide since World War II.

For many witnesses and victims of the bloody wars in the former Yugoslavia, Mladic, rather than former President Radovan Karadzic, who was arrested this week, is the big catch.

"To me, the most criminal is Mladic," said Haira Capic, a mother who lost a 26-year-old son and a husband in Srebrenica.

"It would gives us comfort, if he was arrested and extradited to the Hague. We must continue to carry the burden of the children we lost," insisted Capic. "Only half of the evil duo has been caught. Once Mladic as well as Karadzic is behind bars in the Hague, then the healing can truly begin."

Karadzic's recent arrest will encourage the Serbian government to step up its hunt for the war criminal Mladic.

Dusan Ignjatovic, director of the Tribunal's Office of the National Council for Cooperation, said that Serbia has the political will to capture both Mladic and another fugitive, Goran Hadzic, a Croatian Serb leader during the war.

"We have shown that nobody was protected and that it is a matter of days before Mladic and Hadzic will be at the tribunal," Ignjatovic told ABCNews.com.

Security expert Zoran Dragisic also thinks that Serbian authorities are on the road toward eventually capturing Mladic. "The Karadzic arrest happened while secret police were looking for Mladic. State authorities must have information about Mladic. The belt around Mladic is tightening and I am sure he will be arrested soon," he said.

But it might not be so easy.

"Karadzic was seen as a comic figure in Serbia, while Mladic is considered a hero and a defender of Serbs," said James Lyon of the International Crisis Group (ICG).