Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor of the Yugoslavia tribunal is very pleased with the arrest of Ratko Mladic.

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Richard Goldstone gave his first comments in an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldside's international justice desk.

"Of course I am very pleased to hear the news. It's almost 16 years since we issued the first and second indictments against Mladic together with Radovan Karadzic - the first related to war crimes committed in the 1991 to 1993 period in the war in the former Yugoslavia and of course the second was genocide following the terrible massacre in Srebrenica."

How was it to work on the indictments in 1995, being the first prosecutor?

"Well our policy was to try and indict the most senior people, the most repsonsible, the most guilty and Karadzic and Mladic were on the top of our list along with Milosevic and it was of course very frustrating and very disappointing to have to wait all these years 13 - in case of Karadzic and 16 in case of Mladic. But it is of course important for all potential war criminals all indicted war criminals to know that they will eventually get caught."

How did you receive the news - were you called by somebody?

"In fact my wife heard about it on the radio in the middle of the night and she told me about it the minute I woke up."

What do expect to happen next?

"I assume he is on his way to the Hague or will be very soon and he will very soon be before judges in the Hague and the indictment will be put to him and he will be asked to say whether he pleads guilty or not guilty.

Do you intend to travel to the Hague and witness the trail?

"No unfortunately not I have a lot of travel commitments ahead of me in the next few weeks, I always love to come to Hague but there is no trip planned.

What do you think will happen with last fugitive from the ICTY Mr Hadzic - will he be arrested soon?

"Well I hope so - this is certainly going in that direction - what is very important is that the authorities in the countries concerned realise eventually that it is in their interests to make these arrests."

(*) Richard Goldstone was chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 1994 to 1996.