Global General

Mladic calls genocide charges 'monstrous' lie

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-06-03 20:54

Former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic appears in court at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, June 3, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

THE HAGUE - Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic faced the UN war crimes tribunal on Friday as a defiant general who never lost a battle, denying the charges against him as "obnoxious" and "monstrous."

Wearing a military forage cap, which he later removed, Mladic began the hearing with a brief salute.

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"The whole world knows who I am. I am General Ratko Mladic," he said at the end of his first appearance.

"I defended my people, my country ... now I am defending myself," he told the court and a rapt public gallery.

"I just have to say that I want to live to see that I am a free man."

As expected, he declined to enter a plea and the court set his next hearing for July 4.

Mladic told Judge Alphons Orie he was gravely ill and "in a poor state." He said indignantly that he did not want to hear "a single letter or word of that indictment" read out to him.

He shook his head in denial as Orie, reading a summary, described the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995 of which he is accused.

Once a burly and intimidating figure on the battlefield, Mladic appeared older than his 69 years. His mouth seemed to droop slightly at one corner and his words were slightly slurred, the possible result of a stroke.

After making the basketball hand signal for a "timeout" to his lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic, Mladic obtained a 10-minute private session with microphones turned off, to discuss his health problems.

Afterwards he told the court he had been treated with "fairness and dignity" since his arrest, but had one request.

"I don't want to be helped to walk as if I were some blind cripple. If I want help, I'll ask for it," he said.

Mladic is also charged with crimes against humanity for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 in which some 12,000 people were killed.

Orie cited a charge that Bosnian Serb forces carried out a sustained campaign of "sniping and shelling to kill, maim, wound and terrorize" the people of the Bosnian capital.

Dressed in a gray striped suit with a gray shirt and sober black checked tie, Mladic frequently wiped his cheeks and mouth, stroked his chin and placed his hand on his forehead.

He listened intently to the judge, occasionally nodding or shaking his finger.