In an interview with broadcaster B92 on August 21 2008, head of Serbia's council for co-operation with the Hague war crimes tribunal Rasim Ljajic said it was a thankless task to claim whether Ratko Mladic, former head of the Bosnian Serb army and close aide of already arrested former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, was in Serbia.

“Until he is located, it will be very thankless to claim that he is in Serbia or not,” Ljajic said.

Mladic, like Karadzic, is indicted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Ljajic told B92 that it seemed the news of Karadzic's arrest were taken coolly by “many in the international community who are ill-disposed” towards Serbia. Others, according to him, were afraid that Serbia could “endanger some of their actions” as it can become better positioned on the international stage.

Announcing he would go to Brussels at the beginning of September to discuss with European Parliament officials Serbia's co-operation with the tribunal, Ljajic told the broadcaster that “the majority of the public is against co-operation with the tribunal, not because people support war criminals, but because the tribunal is very often unprincipled and because it has delivered very strange verdicts.”