The former Yugoslav states should do their outmost to prosecute war crimes cases left over from the 1990s conflicts in order to promote reconciliation and rule of law, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Wednesday.

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"It is important that we condemn all war crimes and prosecute their perpetrators," Tadic said during his first official visit to Sarajevo in five years, aimed at boosting the fragile ties between former rivals.

Relations between Belgrade and Sarajevo have worsened since Tadic's last visit in 2006 and remain among the coolest in the Balkans, where most former foes have made some efforts to repair political and trade links.

Analysts see the latest in a series of actions by the reformist Serbian leader as a step forward in healing the wounds of the wars that erupted during the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Relations with Sarajevo have turned sour mainly because of Serbia's arrest and trial of Bosnian officials for war crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, and issuing new arrest warrants.
In that respect Tadic said he had proposed that judicial authorities review all existing war crimes arrest warrants, after which courts should be obliged to prosecute the cases where there is ground for such motion.

"We expect the judicial authorities to conduct fair trials and that those found responsible, get a deserved punishment," he said. "This is a basic requirement for the reconciliation in the ex-Yugoslavia and for the establishment of the rule of law".

Bosnia and Serbia both want to join the European Union and Tadic said Serbia's main focus was to complete its cooperation with the United Nations war crimes tribunal by arresting its last war crimes fugitive, Goran Hadzic, the leader of Serbs in Croatia in the early 1990s.

"I am positive that Serbia will close the cooperation with The Hague tribunal and apprehend Hadzic just like it has enabled the handover to the tribunal of 45 out of 46 war crimes suspects," Tadic said.

Source: Reuters

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