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Ratko Mladic: 5 reasons the 'Hague Hilton' is no San Quentin

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb Army leader who is considered responsible for the Srebrenica massacre, arrived in The Hague Tuesday. He will be placed in the same detention center as the others facing trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Mr. Mladic faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in detention, but as detention centers go, the 'Hague Hilton,' as it is sometimes called, may not be such a bad place to stay.

Bas Czerwinski/AP
A helicopter believed to be carrying war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic departs Rotterdam Airport, Netherlands, after he arrived on a flight from Belgrade, Serbia, on Tuesday, May 31. Mladic is on his way to The Hague, the Serbian justice minister said, just hours after judges rejected his appeal Tuesday to stop his extradition to a UN tribunal.

Location, location, location

Bas Czerwinski/AP
A helicopter believed to be carrying war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic departs Rotterdam Airport, Netherlands, after he arrived on a flight from Belgrade, Serbia, on Tuesday, May 31. Mladic is on his way to The Hague, the Serbian justice minister said, just hours after judges rejected his appeal Tuesday to stop his extradition to a UN tribunal.

  • By Ariel Zirulnick Correspondent

The detention center where Mladic is being held is located in a coastal Dutch suburb called Sheveningen (see map), outside The Hague (the name of the town is also used as a collective term for the international courts clustered in the town). The suburb is a popular seaside resort. Reuters reports that the detention center is about a mile from the ocean.

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