SERBIA was plunged into a political crisis last night after Brussels suspended talks leading to EU membership as punishment for failing to arrest one of the most wanted war criminals in Europe.

The European Commission said that it was halting negotiations on closer links with Serbia after the deadline to deliver Ratko Mladic to the Hague war crimes tribunal passed on April 30 with the fugitive still in hiding.

Relations between Belgrade and the international community plunged to new lows as Carla del Ponte, the chief war crimes prosecutor at the UN, declared that she had been misled by the Serbian Government and accused Vojislav Kostunica, the Prime Minister of Serbia, of being “double faced”.

Miroljub Labus, the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and a leading pro-European reformer who led the talks with the EU, resigned, urging his fellow coalition members to follow suit to bring the Government down. He said that the failure to hand over General Mladic was a betrayal of the Serbian people.

The blocking of the path to the EU could bring the break-up of the rump of the former Yugoslavia. Montenegro, Serbia’s junior partner, is more likely to vote for separation in a referendum this month. It also strengthens demands for independence in Kosovo.

General Mladic has been indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed. He is seen by Serbian nationalists as a hero and has eluded capture for more than a decade with the support of a network of sympathisers, including many in the secret services and Army.

Although handing General Mladic to the tribunal is a precondition of Serbia’s entry into the EU the Government has failed to deliver on its promises.

Suspending the talks on an association agreement, the first step on the path to EU membership, Olli Rehn, the Enlargement Commissioner, said yesterday: “This issue is about the rule of law. Serbia must show that nobody is above the law and that anyone indicted for serious crimes will face justice.”

Mr Kostunica said that it was unfair to penalise Serbia when the Government had done absolutely everything in its power to capture the general. “Never in our history has the entire state and nation been made to suffer because of one officer,” he said. “By hiding, Ratko Mladic is inflicting enormous damage on our state and national interests.”

His words were dismissed by Ms del Ponte, who said that the Belgrade Government was not co-operating fully.

She called Mr Kostunica “double faced” for calling for General Mladic to turn himself in, saying: “It is a scandal because Kostunica himself told me he was ready to arrest [Mladic].” She denounced the hunt as unprofessional, saying that the Serbian authorities knew as recently as ten days ago where General Mladic was and could have arrested him before he disappeared again.

“The obvious conclusion is that I was misled when I was told at the end of March that the arrest of Mladic would be a matter of days or weeks.”

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