Serbs dislike EU pressure to arrest Mladic

Serbs dislike EU pressure to arrest Mladic

BELGRADE, Serbia, July 31 (UPI) -- Serbia's skepticism at joining the European community will rise because of EU pressure on Belgrade to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, experts said.

Public support for Serbia's EU membership was its highest -- 73 percent of the populace -- in 2003. Polls now indicate is it less than 60 percent, with expectations that it will keep falling, Belgrade's Beta news agency said Monday quoting the Balkan Insight Research Web site.
Jovan Teokarevic, dean of the University of Belgrade's political science department, told Beta Serbia's support to European integrations originally was strong because citizens did not know how EU membership would influence their standard of living.
Now, the situation has changed and citizens believe the EU is putting too much pressure on the Serbian government to arrest Mladic, who is wanted on war crimes charges stemming from the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.
Many Serbs consider Mladic a national hero.
The European Union broke off association talks with Serbia, because Serb leaders missed a deadline to hand over Mladic. The EU said talks could resume when Mladic is transferred to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.