VUJIĆ: WE WILL CONTINUE PRESSING FOR RESPECT OF GENERAL MLADIĆ'S HUMAN RIGHTS

BELGRADE, AUGUST 22 /SRNA/ — Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić said that Serbia would continue to insist on respect for General Ratko Mladić's fundamental human rights and on a review of the decision by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals to once again reject a request for his provisional release on humanitarian grounds.

"The fact that two of the five judges supported his release on humanitarian grounds confirms the validity of the arguments I presented in my letter to the Mechanism. Therefore, Serbia will continue to insist on respect for fundamental human rights, as well as on an immediate review of the decision," Vujić stated.

He stressed that justice and humanity are not opposing principles and that respect for human dignity must endure until the final moment of a person's life.

Vujić noted that, according to the Mechanism's findings, Mladić’s options for further medical treatment are very limited and that his medical care is now primarily palliative, the Serbian Ministry of Justice said.

"Under such circumstances, the question of humane treatment cannot be reduced solely to whether adequate medical care is being provided at the detention facility. Adequate medical care is a necessary part of humane treatment, but it does not exhaust the requirements of human dignity, particularly when a person’s life is measured in days," Vujić said.

He stressed that under such circumstances, adequate medical care requires the presence of family members and an environment that is not distressing.

Vujić welcomed the Mechanism's decision to facilitate family visits as much as possible, but noted that visiting a dying family member is not the same as allowing him to spend his final days in significantly closer and more sustained proximity to his loved ones at a hospital in Serbia.

"I particularly emphasize that Serbia did not ask for Ratko Mladić to be released to his home. Rather, it expressed its readiness to arrange a medical transfer to the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, where he would receive continuous institutional medical and palliative care and be surrounded by members of his family," Vujić explained.

He stressed that Serbia was prepared to accept monitoring, medical reporting, restrictions on movement and any other conditions the Mechanism deemed necessary.

The Hague Mechanism yesterday rejected a request for General Ratko Mladić to be transferred to Serbia for medical treatment.

The general's son, Darko Mladić, told SRNA that this time two judges had supported his father’s release, but that Mechanism President Graciela Gatti Santana had not accepted their arguments.

"The Hague Mechanism today refused to allow the general to be transferred to Serbia for treatment, with the cynical reasoning that we had not demonstrated that he would receive better care in Serbia than in the Netherlands," Darko Mladić said, adding that staff at the detention hospital had stopped measuring his father's blood pressure and performing ECGs, and had discontinued his diabetes medication.