Former Bosnian Serb military chief General Ratko Mladic has told a United Nations war crimes court he is “a gravely ill man” and refused to enter pleas to “obnoxious charges” alleging he orchestrated the worst atrocities of a war that claimed 100,000 lives.

Victims of the 1992-95 Bosnian war have gathered outside a courtroom in The Hague for the start of UN criminal proceedings against Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander accused of orchestrating the worst atrocities of a war that claimed 100,000 lives.