Serbian former general Ratko Mladic was declared fit on Friday to stand trial for war crimes and will soon be extradited to the Hague, where the trial will take place. Mladic’s lawyers had argued that his medical condition rendered him unable to go and that he must be put in medical treatment. They plan to appeal the decision. 

Image courtesy of Surian Soosay (via Creative Commons)

Mladic is accused of committing atrocities such as genocide during the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995. He was indicted in 1995 for the massacre of 7,500 men and boys at Srebrenica, which the BBC calls the worst single day of mass murder in Europe since World War II. He was not arrested until Thursday. The arrest was hailed internationally and many compared it to the U.S. raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed.

The killing of Osama bin Laden had apparently sparked questions in Serbia about its government's ability to capture war criminals such as Mladic. Radio Free Europe had conducted interviews with locals making precisely that point. Goran Petrovic, a former head of Serbia’s secret police took the opportunity to slam the Serbian government in the wake of the U.S. raid in Pakistan:

“For God’s sake, if the United States couldn’t locate Bin Laden with all their money and secret agencies, how can we, small and poor, find Mladic? Now the killing of Bin Laden is in a way a very bad news for Serbia, since they are left without this excuse.”

Petrovic was speaking almost a month ago. Now, by finally landing Mladic, the government of Boris Tadic has done away with the need for excuses.

As Salon's Ben Greenwald notes in a blog post, however, there are key differences between the two events and that the similarities have been exaggerated. 

Now Serbian officials are looking a little better. International attention has been focused back on Serbia, whose unpopular government is experiencing a boost of public support. Serbia, in the long run, is hoping to soon be considered for European Union membership.

From the Economist:

According to [EU enlargement commissioner Stefan] Fule, Mr Mladic's arrest is "the spark" needed to revive the process, both for Serbia and the EU. The Balkan states have suffered from apathy in terms of accession while many member states have suffered from enlargement fatigue. "I hope the unfolding events will make those irrelevant."

But while the Serbs believe they can get candidate status, a date to start talks seems overambitious. Mr Mladic was one obstacle, say EU sources. Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is another. In March Serbia and Kosovo began EU-sponsored talks. The atmosphere has been good, but no agreements have been made. A deal needs to be struck to avoid "another Cyprus", says one diplomat; talking is fine, but they have to give the impression that one day a solution might be found.

In Foreign Policy, David Bosco writes that the Mladic arrest proves the EU's value as an enticing "carrot to induce meaningful change in candidate countries."

Reach Ryan Faughnder here. Follow him on Twitter here.