Excerpt
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): And for more on today's arrest of Mr. Mladic and the significance of it, we turn to U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp. He previously served as a lead prosecutor in U.N.-sponsored war crimes trials for the African nations of Rwanda and Sierra Leone. And Emma Daly, who covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia for the British newspaper, the independent, she's now communications director at Human Rights Watch.
Welcome to you both.
Ambassador Rapp, you have been to Serbia five times in the last 15 months. What new can you add to the circumstances of his capture?
STEPHEN RAPP, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues: Well, that it is -- that it's a Serbian operation.
They were maintaining surveillance over the extended family. We have been in touch with them. We have been providing them with advice and assistance with the FBI. They have been meeting with us regularly to inform us on their progress, which is important, because our -- our assistance to Serbia depends upon that full cooperation.
But this was a -- was a situation of maintaining surveillance and finally getting the signal that this is where he was, and being able to move in on him.
MARGARET WARNER: And are you saying the FBI was actively assisting the investigation?
STEPHEN RAPP: The FBI made two visits to Serbia and -- to provide advice, our Federal Bureau of Investigations actively involved in chasing down fugitives both on federal and state warrants, and could provide some technical assistance and advice about how to do that.
That wasn't operational, however. That is just an example of what we have done to try to make this happen.
MARGARET WARNER: All right, and I want to get back to that, but let me bring in Emma Daly here.
Ms. Daly, remind us about Mladic. And how critical a figure was he in this top triumvirate, the Serb president, Milosevic, the Bosnian Serb president, Karadzic, and himself?
EMMA DALY, Human Rights Watch: Well, I think he really personified the brutality of the war.
He was a brilliant strategist in many ways, the architect of the siege of Sarajevo, of mass ethnic cleansing of villages across the country, and most famously -- or infamously -- of the massacre at Srebrenica.
He was really -- to some in Serbian nationalist circles, he was really a folk hero. And he -- he just espoused this very strong sense of -- he was trying to take revenge in a way for what he saw as abuses against the Serb people in the past.
MARGARET WARNER: And so how significant would you say today's arrest is in maybe finally beginning to close the chapter on this whole horrible event?
EMMA DALY: Oh, I think it's extremely important. I mean, his arrest is absolutely crucial.
I think it's extremely important, not just for his victims in Bosnia, of whom there are many. I think that they will probably feel a great sense of relief that the relatives of those who died in the war will finally get a day in court.
I think it also has a wider significance, in that it sends a message to those people who are engaged in potential atrocities right now in other countries around the world.
MARGARET WARNER: Ambassador Rapp, going back to the circumstances leading up to this, how did he evade capture for 16 years? I mean, we saw those videos, him at a wedding, that famous one of him out skiing or walking in the snow. Was the Serb government protecting him?
STEPHEN RAPP: Well, all I can say is that, since I have been in this post and working closely with the government of President Tadic, they have been digging in and seeking -- seeking his arrest, and I think turning over every stone to make it happen.
I think, prior to that time, there were situations where there wasn't a diligent effort to find him, even a time when he was drawing a military pension. But -- but, in the course of the last two years or more, there has been this effort.
And I think it's a reflection of the fact that -- that this government and the people have decided to turn this page and to move forward in Europe. It's also because of the conditions that countries have placed on the admission of Serbia to the family of nations, particularly by the E.U.
While the current government of Serbia may not have been protecting Mladic I believe that the people of Serbia were protecting him. The crimes commuted in Serbia could not have happened without the support or ambivalence of the people. This mirrors Nazi Germany.
The Bosnian Conflict was an Ethnic/Nationalistic based war, and the people that conducted this war WERE seen by many as heroes.
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