GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Radko Mladic’s arrest in Serbia Thursday 26 May after 16 years on the run from accusations of war crimes has prompted congratulations from world leaders from around the world. Among them: Carla del Ponte, the Swiss prosecutor who presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 2003 to 2008. She said on Swiss public radio RSR this evening, “It’s a great day, a great moment, not just for international justice but also for the victims.” Del Ponte is currently Switzerland’s ambassador to Argentina.

Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian Serbs from 1992 to 1996, working closely with political leader Radovan Karadzic, who was caught in 2008 after 13 years at large. The two, along with Slobodan Milosevic, were accused on several accounts of genocide. The ICTY had sought them on charges of leading the slaughter of 8,000 people at Srebrenica in 1995, and the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo. During the siege some 11,000 people died.

Serbia’s president Boris Tadic says his country will now concentrate on catching Goran Hadzic, another leader sought for war crimes. Tadic says today’s arrest shows that his country has been cooperating with the tribunal and its application to join the European Union, on hold over the failure to find the former leaders, can now move ahead. Both Mladic and Karadzic were found living under aliases, disguised.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, on trial for genocide at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands will appear today, 3 November for a procedural hearing. Karadzic has boycotted the proceedings since 26 October, saying he needs more time to review a million documents and the testimony of hundreds of witnesses. Karadzic stands accused of 11 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity during the war in Bosnia 1992-1995, when he led the Bosnian Serbs during that country’s civil war. Al-Jazeera, Epoch Times