‘Defiant’ Mladic removed from tribunal

A DEFIANT Ratko Mladic plunged his Yugoslav war crimes tribunal arraignment into chaos, repeatedly shouting at judges, defying their orders and refusing to enter pleas to 11 charges before the presiding judge threw him out of the hearing.

After a brief adjournment to have Mladic removed, Presiding Judge Alphons Orie resumed the hearing and formally entered not-guilty pleas on Mladic’s behalf, in line with court rules for suspects who refuse to plead.

Shortly before guards escorted Mladic from court, he shouted at Orie, “You want to impose my defence, what kind of a court are you?”

Mladic, 69, is accused of masterminding the worst Serb atrocities of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war that cost 100,000 lives. He is accused of genocide as the top military official overseeing the 1995 killing of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Europe’s worst mass killing since the Second World War.

Mladic was disruptive and argumentative from the outset at only his second appearance before the UN court since being extradited by Serbia just over a month ago. He had been arrested in a village outside Belgrade after nearly 16 years as one of Europe’s most-wanted fugitives from justice.

He put on a cap and gestured to members of the public, in open defiance of orders from Orie. Speaking out of turn, he complained of being “an old man” and told Orie he wanted to wear the cap because his head was cold.

Mladic had threatened to boycott the hearing because court officials have not yet appointed the Serbian and Russian lawyers he wants to represent him at his trial. He is being represented for the moment by court-appointed lawyer Aleksander Aleksic.

“You are trying to impose impossible conditions on me — a lawyer I do not want,” he said at the hearing.

Orie told Mladic it was up to the court’s registry, not judges, to approve the two attorneys.

One of the two lawyers Mladic wants to represent him, Milos Saljic, said the former general’s behaviour in court demonstrated he is not mentally fit to stand trial. “Let them now see for themselves his behaviour and let them decide accordingly,” Saljic said.

Saljic added that he does not believe he could represent Mladic at the United Nations court. “I’m not a real candidate. I don’t speak English,” Saljic said. “He’s insisting on me because I have been his lawyer all of his life.”

When Orie asked Mladic whether he was ready to hear the charges, Mladic responded “You can do whatever you want.”

Hundreds of people gathered in the main square of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, to watch a live broadcast of the hearing, cheering and shouting “the monster is gone”.