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Mladic's arraignment
THE HAGUE — For years Ratko Mladic impressed friends and foes with his barking voice and commanding presence. But in the dock on Friday, he seemed much diminished — the swagger gone, his speech slurred, the feared warrior now an infirm and elderly man.
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Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Bosnian women from Srebrenica, sitting in a room in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, filled with pictures of people who died in the town from 1992-95, watched the proceedings at The Hague.
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Mr. Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general who was arrested in Serbia eight days ago after 16 years on the run, made his long-awaited appearance on Friday before an international court here that has accused him of genocide and multiple other atrocities. He quickly dismissed the charges read out to him as “obnoxious” and “monstrous.”
As Mr. Mladic, one of Europe’s most wanted men before his arrest, shuffled into court, two guards helped him into his chair. He looked around, a bit bewildered, then listened, sometimes rubbing his face or flashing a mocking smile.
Asked if he wanted to exercise his right to have the 37-page indictment read aloud in court, he said, “I do not want a single letter or sentence of that indictment read to me.” But the presiding judge, Alphons Orie of the Netherlands, went on to read from the 11 counts of crimes attributed to Mr. Mladic, a grave list that recounts unrelenting assaults on civilians by the troops under his command during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
But Mr. Mladic seemed most interested in his health. A few minutes into the 90-minute hearing, he told the judge: “I am a gravely ill man. I need a bit more time. Please be patient with me.” Later, he had a long private exchange with the judge about his ailments, which may well affect the course of his trial.
Aleksandar Aleksic, a lawyer for Mr. Mladic in The Hague, said Mr. Mladic had experienced three strokes and suffered from high blood pressure and from an intestinal hernia that required surgery.
Even so, Mr. Mladic tried to maintain some measure of decorum. With his right arm impaired by a stroke, he gave the judges a left-handed military salute as they entered the court.
At one point he straightened himself and told the court, “I am here defending my country and my people, not Ratko Mladic.” That drew a quick response from Judge Orie, who said, “I would like to remind you that you are charged as an individual.”
Mr. Mladic asked for more time to enter a plea, and the judge agreed, ordering him to appear in court again on July 4.
In the public gallery, separated from the courtroom by a wall of bulletproof glass, women who had traveled from Bosnia occasionally shouted abuse. “Butcher of the Balkans, you killed my son,” said one woman in a loud voice. “He has the devil inside him,” said another, before being told by guards to keep silent.
Outside the courtroom, Zumra Sahomerovic, of Srebrenica, Bosnia, the scene of the worst massacre that was said to have been ordered by Mr. Mladic, described the scene as pathetic. “Such a big general, and he’s now complaining about his health and how much stress he has,” she said.
Mr. Mladic’s arrival is expected to extend the life of the tribunal by several years. Created by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 to deal with war crimes cases related to the breakup of Yugoslavia, the tribunal had been scheduled to close in 2014.
Given the time it will take for Mr. Mladic and his lawyers to prepare his defense, the trial itself is not expected to begin for months. Prosecutors were debating whether to break out one or several segments from the indictment, which encompasses four broad sets of crimes: the violent campaign in 1992 to drive non-Serbs from large parts of Bosnia to create a region for Serbs only; the shelling and sniping during the 44-month siege of Sarajevo; the Srebrenica massacre; and the taking of Dutch troops from the United Nations peacekeeping force as hostages before overrunning Srebrenica.
Serge Brammertz, the lead prosecutor for the tribunal, said this week that Mr. Mladic “has come late, but not too late.” If anything, tribunal lawyers say, it may be easier for the prosecution to prove its case now than if he had arrived a decade earlier.
The violence during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s affected other regions, but Bosnia’s “ethnic cleansing” campaigns and the massacre at Srebrenica became the war’s overriding nightmares. Much evidence has been amassed and tested in trials of events that involve Mr. Mladic. Two of his close aides have received life sentences — the maximum the tribunal can impose — for their role in the Srebrenica massacre. Two others received life sentences for their role in the siege of Sarajevo, in which about 10,000 people died. Other underlings have also been tried and given a range of prison sentences.
In addition to extensive film footage that puts Mr. Mladic on the scene at the time of military action, the tribunal last year received the contents of secret material found in his Belgrade home. It included recordings of Mr. Mladic during meetings and telephone calls, and, most surprising to investigators, his military wartime diaries, adding up to some 4,000 pages.
With this great volume of material, the challenge for the prosecution will be to keep the trial manageable, since Mr. Mladic’s health may deteriorate if the proceedings run long.
Prosecutors have recently revised and updated the Mladic indictment to bring it broadly in line with that of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnia Serb political leader who is already on trial here.
Each man now faces two counts of genocide as well as counts of extermination and murder; deportation; terrorism and unlawful attacks; persecution; and one count of hostage-taking of more than 200 United Nations peacekeepers.
One option now being studied is to try Mr. Mladic and Mr. Karadzic together on the Srebrenica charges. Mr. Karadzic’s trial, which began 18 months ago, has been focused on the Sarajevo siege and the abduction of the peacekeepers.
Geoffrey Nice, the lead prosecutor in the case of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, said he believed that Mr. Mladic could be tried relatively quickly. “Srebrenica is such a grave offense that, if proved, just that would clearly be sufficient to obtain a sentence,” he said. Limiting the trial “would probably be wise, especially in view of Mladic’s age and health,” he said.
Peter Robinson, the legal adviser to Mr. Karadzic, who acts as his own lawyer, said there were “pros and cons to a joint trial.”
“Dr. Karadzic has not yet decided,” he said. “He thought it would be best to discuss this with Mladic.”
Enlarge This Image
Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Bosnian women from Srebrenica, sitting in a room in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, filled with pictures of people who died in the town from 1992-95, watched the proceedings at The Hague.
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (75) »
Mr. Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general who was arrested in Serbia eight days ago after 16 years on the run, made his long-awaited appearance on Friday before an international court here that has accused him of genocide and multiple other atrocities. He quickly dismissed the charges read out to him as “obnoxious” and “monstrous.”
As Mr. Mladic, one of Europe’s most wanted men before his arrest, shuffled into court, two guards helped him into his chair. He looked around, a bit bewildered, then listened, sometimes rubbing his face or flashing a mocking smile.
Asked if he wanted to exercise his right to have the 37-page indictment read aloud in court, he said, “I do not want a single letter or sentence of that indictment read to me.” But the presiding judge, Alphons Orie of the Netherlands, went on to read from the 11 counts of crimes attributed to Mr. Mladic, a grave list that recounts unrelenting assaults on civilians by the troops under his command during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
But Mr. Mladic seemed most interested in his health. A few minutes into the 90-minute hearing, he told the judge: “I am a gravely ill man. I need a bit more time. Please be patient with me.” Later, he had a long private exchange with the judge about his ailments, which may well affect the course of his trial.
Aleksandar Aleksic, a lawyer for Mr. Mladic in The Hague, said Mr. Mladic had experienced three strokes and suffered from high blood pressure and from an intestinal hernia that required surgery.
Even so, Mr. Mladic tried to maintain some measure of decorum. With his right arm impaired by a stroke, he gave the judges a left-handed military salute as they entered the court.
At one point he straightened himself and told the court, “I am here defending my country and my people, not Ratko Mladic.” That drew a quick response from Judge Orie, who said, “I would like to remind you that you are charged as an individual.”
Mr. Mladic asked for more time to enter a plea, and the judge agreed, ordering him to appear in court again on July 4.
In the public gallery, separated from the courtroom by a wall of bulletproof glass, women who had traveled from Bosnia occasionally shouted abuse. “Butcher of the Balkans, you killed my son,” said one woman in a loud voice. “He has the devil inside him,” said another, before being told by guards to keep silent.
Outside the courtroom, Zumra Sahomerovic, of Srebrenica, Bosnia, the scene of the worst massacre that was said to have been ordered by Mr. Mladic, described the scene as pathetic. “Such a big general, and he’s now complaining about his health and how much stress he has,” she said.
Mr. Mladic’s arrival is expected to extend the life of the tribunal by several years. Created by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 to deal with war crimes cases related to the breakup of Yugoslavia, the tribunal had been scheduled to close in 2014.
Given the time it will take for Mr. Mladic and his lawyers to prepare his defense, the trial itself is not expected to begin for months. Prosecutors were debating whether to break out one or several segments from the indictment, which encompasses four broad sets of crimes: the violent campaign in 1992 to drive non-Serbs from large parts of Bosnia to create a region for Serbs only; the shelling and sniping during the 44-month siege of Sarajevo; the Srebrenica massacre; and the taking of Dutch troops from the United Nations peacekeeping force as hostages before overrunning Srebrenica.
Serge Brammertz, the lead prosecutor for the tribunal, said this week that Mr. Mladic “has come late, but not too late.” If anything, tribunal lawyers say, it may be easier for the prosecution to prove its case now than if he had arrived a decade earlier.
The violence during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s affected other regions, but Bosnia’s “ethnic cleansing” campaigns and the massacre at Srebrenica became the war’s overriding nightmares. Much evidence has been amassed and tested in trials of events that involve Mr. Mladic. Two of his close aides have received life sentences — the maximum the tribunal can impose — for their role in the Srebrenica massacre. Two others received life sentences for their role in the siege of Sarajevo, in which about 10,000 people died. Other underlings have also been tried and given a range of prison sentences.
In addition to extensive film footage that puts Mr. Mladic on the scene at the time of military action, the tribunal last year received the contents of secret material found in his Belgrade home. It included recordings of Mr. Mladic during meetings and telephone calls, and, most surprising to investigators, his military wartime diaries, adding up to some 4,000 pages.
With this great volume of material, the challenge for the prosecution will be to keep the trial manageable, since Mr. Mladic’s health may deteriorate if the proceedings run long.
Prosecutors have recently revised and updated the Mladic indictment to bring it broadly in line with that of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnia Serb political leader who is already on trial here.
Each man now faces two counts of genocide as well as counts of extermination and murder; deportation; terrorism and unlawful attacks; persecution; and one count of hostage-taking of more than 200 United Nations peacekeepers.
One option now being studied is to try Mr. Mladic and Mr. Karadzic together on the Srebrenica charges. Mr. Karadzic’s trial, which began 18 months ago, has been focused on the Sarajevo siege and the abduction of the peacekeepers.
Geoffrey Nice, the lead prosecutor in the case of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, said he believed that Mr. Mladic could be tried relatively quickly. “Srebrenica is such a grave offense that, if proved, just that would clearly be sufficient to obtain a sentence,” he said. Limiting the trial “would probably be wise, especially in view of Mladic’s age and health,” he said.
Peter Robinson, the legal adviser to Mr. Karadzic, who acts as his own lawyer, said there were “pros and cons to a joint trial.”
“Dr. Karadzic has not yet decided,” he said. “He thought it would be best to discuss this with Mladic.”
