Ratko Mladic greeted the police coming to arrest him on Thursday morning, praising them, the Serbian Interior Ministry, Ivica Dacic, said on Saturday, the newspapers providing more details about how the arrest of former military leader occurred.
“Bravo guys, you found the one you were looking for”, were the first words that the former Bosnian Serb military leader addressed to the team of policemen and members of Serbian Intelligence Service (BIA), when they entered the Lazarevo house where Ratko Mladic was hiding, said Dacic for the public TV station RTS.
According to daily newspaper Blic, the detail that allowed investigators to formally identify Ratko Mladic in the person that they were watching, while was leaving the Lazarevo house to step out into the garden was a gemstone ring he worn on his left hand.
Ratko Mladic has removed the ring during the arrest and handed it over to a policeman, asking “to be given to his family”.
“It’s over. Branko (Ratko Mladic’s cousin) offers the drinking and the food. This is my identity card and the military record”, said Mladic, according to the newspaper Blic, quoting a source close to the investigation.
Ham, cheese and raki, a very popular plum brandy in Serbia have been offered to BIA members and police officers.
According to Blic, Ratko Mladic was asked if he has any guns, and the former military chief responded: “What kind of general would I be if I had no guns? Here are my two guns”.
Ratko Mladic will be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where he is indicted for genocide for his role during the war in Bosnia (1992-1995).