Tadic revives Serbia's hopes for EU entry

A timeline

1942: Ratko Mladic is born in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Partisan father who is killed by Croat Fascists in 1945.

1991: Yugoslavia breaks apart. Mladic commands Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) troops in Croatia which carve out Serb area.

1992: Bosnia and Herzegovina declares independence. Bosnian Serb army (VRS) formally separates from JNA but retains heavy weapons and manpower. Under Mladic's command, begins siege of Sarajevo, conquers two-thirds of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Two million flee their homes.

1994: Ana, Mladic's only daughter, commits suicide.

1995: In May, VRS shell kills 70 in Tuzla, NATO bombs Bosnian Serbs. In July, VRS captures Srebrenica, kills 8,000. Mladic is indicted, together with Radovan Karadžic, political leader of Bosnian Serbs. In November, Slobodan Miloševic, Serbia's leader, sidelines Bosnian Serbs and signs up to US-brokered Dayton peace deal.

1996: 60,000 NATO troops occupy Bosnia, but declare hunt for war criminals not their job.

2000: Miloševic is deposed and handed over to International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) the following year.

2003: Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's reformist prime minister, is assassinated. Nationalists gain power again, suspend co- operation with ICTY but “encourage” voluntary surrenders.

2006: EU suspends pre-accession talks with Serbia over failure to co-operate with ICTY.

2007: New coalition government begins arrests, transfers to ICTY,

EU resumes pre-accession talks.

2008: Karadžic is captured in Belgrade.

2009: Serbia applies for EU membership.

2011: Mladic is arrested in northern Serbia.