Serbs snatch war-crimes general in gesture to West

BELGRADE, June 1 (Reuters) A Bosnian Serb general accused of complicity in the murder of thousands in the 1992-95 Bosnia war was on his way to the Hague tribunal today, a gesture that could improve Serbia's chances to one day join the European Union.

The arrest of Zdravko Tolimir was the first in more than a year. Belgrade delivered a dozen war crimes fugitives to The Hague in 2005, but the handovers dried up with six top suspects still at large, including former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic.

There were few details about the capture of the 58-year-old former general -- alleged to have helped Mladic plan and execute the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 -- but it is unlikely to have been some lucky accident.

Analysts suggested it could be the first step to the capture of Mladic, on the run since 2001 when he lost the protection of toppled Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

''The whole action was the result of significant pressure from the outside,'' said Natasa Kandic, head of Serbia's Humanitarian Law Centre. ''Nevertheless, it's a step forward, and we can expect to see the arrests of other fugitives.'' But the arrest was also a confusing signal from Serbia, whose recent tilt towards Russia -- in hopes that it will prevent the independence of breakaway Kosovo province -- has prompted one prominent Western think-tank to suggest Belgrade is now ''turning away from Europe''.

The fate of Kosovo, to be decided by the UN Security Council, is now the most contentious issue in the Balkans. The West supports the independence demand of its 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority, but Moscow, backing up Belgrade, seems prepared to delay that indefinitely.

LINE TO MLADIC? EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn -- who holds the key to Serbia's hopes of EU membership -- welcomed Tolimir's arrest as ''an important step towards bringing to justice all remaining fugitives''.

It will also please Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte.

It was at her prompting that the EU last May froze talks with Serbia on closer ties, and she is due to visit Serbia next week to make a fresh assessment.

Fears that the Balkans' biggest country might slide back into the anti-Western isolation of the 1990s over the possible loss of Kosovo, however, has already convinced some EU states it would be best to resume the talks anyway, to show Serbia the door is still open.

For them, the arrest of Tolimir may be a sufficient gesture.

During the 1992-95 Bosnia war, he was one of seven assistant commanders who answered directly to Mladic, and is thought to have helped the commander avoid arrest in the years since 2001.

Officials said the former general was ill, maybe with cancer. He was arrested on the border between Serbia and Bosnia's Serb Republic. There were rumours that he was simply dumped over the border, to reduce the political fallout among Serbia's many ultranationalists.

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