“20 years after the wars of Yugoslav disintegration started, (the) last person indicted for war crimes is arrested. Congratulations to Serbia,” Bildt wrote via Twitter on Wednesday.
Hadzic is the last of all those accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of war crimes in the country.
“A total of 161 persons were indicted by UN Tribunal for war crimes during wars in the Balkans. Justice will pave the way for reconciliation,” Bildt said.
Bildt continued to argue in a blog post later on Wednesday that the arrest “opens up new possibilities” for Serbia with regards to European integration.
Summer 2011 marks 20 years since the former communist country began to break up. The wars continued until 1995 and hostilities were finally brought to an end with the Dayton Agreement on December 14th that year.
Goran Hadzic was not one of the main players in the brutal conflict that unfolded in the Balkans but his status as the last fugitive from justice renders his arrest historic.
The ICTY indictment against Hadzic concerns his alleged involvement in crimes led by Slobodan Milosevic in Croatia from June 1991-December 1993. His name is mostly closely connected to atrocities committed in eastern Slavonia and Vukovar.
He is a Croatian Serb and was president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina during the Croatian independence war.
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