BELGRADE: It would appear at first sight that Ratko Mladic, indicted for war crimes, has little to worry about. A survey shows that two-thirds of Serbs would not tip off the police about him, despite the million euros reward offered by the state.

The results of the survey by the Strategic Marketing Agency were immediately picked on by the international media as further proof that Serbs have not changed much since the wartime 1990s.

Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army (BSA) that waged war against Bosnian Muslims in 1992-95, has been indicted by the United Nations founded International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Mladic, who has been in hiding for more than 10 years now, has been charged with genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995, when BSA units and paramilitaries from Serbia proper executed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys.

The war in Bosnia took more than 100,000 lives, mostly of non-Serbs. Many

Serbs still believe it was right to defend themselves against Muslims and Croats.

Others see the wars as unfair aggression by former leader Slobodan Milosevic who wanted to create a ‘Greater Serbia’ uniting all Serbs of former Yugoslavia at the expense of other nations and their territories.

But labelling Serbs supporters of genocide because many would be unwilling to tip off the authorities about Mladic could be too simplistic.

“This has more to do with values that people obtain in their upbringing,” psychology professor at Belgrade University Zarko Korac told IPS. “Generally, it’s a bad thing to tip someone off. That’s what comes to people’s minds when such a move is considered.”

“It’s a matter of values and not the material point – one million euros (1.3

million dollars),” says psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin. “When openly asked about tipping someone off, people instantly say ‘no’ because that is how they are brought up.”

Svetlana Logar, researcher from Strategic Marketing, says this is about more than personal values.

“Mladic is partially regarded as hero, and partially as war criminal among the Serbian public,” Logar told IPS. ”There is no clear, constant message from people in power on who and what Mladic is, how serious the charges against him are.”

The research, she added, showed that people aged 19-29 are most likely to give Mladic away.

“They are fed up with the blockades against Serbia internationally,” Logar said. “This age group belongs to the 14 per cent of surveyed who would give away Mladic if they knew his whereabouts. Several people even said they would give away Mladic for free, because they are tired of this issue that burdens the nation.”

The arrest of Mladic and Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic remains a precondition for Serbia to join the EU. Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was in hiding for years, was arrested in Belgrade and transferred to the ICTY last year.

At the same time, a lot of Serbs are disappointed by acquittal of Muslim commanders or Kosovo Albanian leaders due to lack of evidence in cases of war crimes against Serbs.

Serbian police have nevertheless put up posters to tempt people to call with information about the wanted men. The poster reminds people of the million euros award for Mladic and 250,000 euros (325,000 dollars) for Hadzic.

“The number of calls has risen,” Jovan Stojic from the Serbian Security and

Information Agency (BIA) told Serbian media. “But these calls are about technicalities, such as how the reward would be paid. No substantial information has been obtained so far.”—Dawn/IPS News Service