Mladic contests charges of deliberately shelling Sarajevo civilians

Former Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic contested charges of deliberately shelling civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, one of the worst atrocities of the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Lawyers for Mladic, who is accused of genocide, opened his defence at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal by calling the first of around 300 witnesses.

He has denied all accusations levelled at him by court prosecutors in The Hague. The trial has been delayed in the past due to his poor health. Mladic, now frail and grey, began by refuting charges relating to the 1992-1996 Sarajevo siege, where a large portion of around 100,000 war deaths during the Balkan wars took place.