Posted on 03/07/2009 6:13:49 AM PST by Ravnagora
BELGRADE -- U.S. historian Charles Ingrao says that the Pentagon did not consider the arrest of Hague fugitives a priority, according to daily Vecernje Novosti.
Ingrao has completed a report that is the result of five years of investigative work by 300 historians, sociologists and legal experts from the former Yugoslavia and entire world.
According to the Belgrade daily, the report states that the American military did everything in its power to make sure that the chief Hague fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadžic, were not arrested.
The report claims that from late February to early July 1996, a specially-formed American reconnaissance unit had Mladic “in its sights” at least 20 times.
The daily states that the American observers were accompanied several times by American Colonel John Batista, who held meetings with Mladic at the command headquarters of the Republic of Srpska military to discuss, reportedly, the terms for his surrender.
The negotiations came to an abrupt halt on July 6, when American soldiers and Mladic’s security personnel came to blows.
According to the daily, American military commanders actively blocked the efforts of the Dutch and Danish to arrest the fugitives, which, the daily says, was confirmed by military and civil officials from several NATO member-states, as well as by Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who was the international high representative in Bosnia-Hercegovina at the time.
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