
(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 22 - Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić recently stated that General Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb military commander serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide and war crimes related to the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, is dying and does not understand the "inhuman principles" that led the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals to deny his transfer to Serbia. Vučić made the statements at the request of Mladić's son, Darko, who claimed his father had recently suffered a second stroke. Vučić received a response from two Bosnian NGOs, the Association of Victims and Witnesses of the Genocide and the Movement of Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves, rather than the Residual Mechanism, which manages the remaining activities of the dissolved International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. The NGOs provided a joint statement outlining the legal reasons why the Mechanism is not following public appeals. They also explained why Mladić remains in prison despite being seriously ill. His final appeal for release on humanitarian and health grounds was rejected by The Hague last May. (ANSA).