Romania hails Mladic arrest

 Romania's Foreign Ministry hailed Thursday the arrest of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic who was accused of committing war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Mladic's arrest certified the efforts undertaken by the Belgrade authorities towards a full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said the ministry in a press release.

It stressed that "Serbia being thus offered the historic opportunity to play a decisive role during the process of reconciliation between the peoples in former Yugoslavia."

"Ratko Mladic's arrest is a major token of commitment to the European path from Serbia," it added.

Serbian President Boris Tadic earlier Thursday announced the arrest of Mladic, the most high-profile fugitive sought by ICTY.

Tadic said an extradition process to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, was "under way," without giving further details.

Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, has been on the run since 1995 when he was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for genocide.

He was said to be responsible for the slaughter of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica. He was also charged for other atrocities committed by his troops during the 1992-1995 Balkan conflict.

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