Mladic faces Hague court on Bosnia genocide charges (Reuters)

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Ratko Mladic will face his judges at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Friday to answer charges of genocide in the Bosnia war.

The former Bosnian Serb Army commander, once a burly and intimidating figure on the battlefield, is now in frail health, looking much older than his 69 years.

Mladic faces the special court's gravest charge, that of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim males and for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 in which some 12,000 were killed.

He was arrested last week in a Serbian village and extradited by Serbia Tuesday, to become the tribunal's biggest case. His capture came nearly 16 years after The Hague court issued its indictment against him.

A career soldier, Mladic was branded "the butcher of the Balkans" in the late 1990s for a ruthless campaign to seize and "ethnically cleanse" territory for Serbs following the breakup of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav federation of six republics.

Serb nationalists believe Mladic defended the nation and did no worse than Croat or Bosnian Muslim army commanders, as the federation was torn apart in five years of conflict that claimed some 130,000 lives, destroying towns and villages.

Hague chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said Mladic had used his power to commit brutal atrocities and must answer for it.

The International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, set up in 1993, expects to wind up its work by 2014. It has issued 161 indictments and has now accounted for all but one fugitive.

Serbs say the fact that two-thirds of them were Serbian is proof of the court's bias. Hague prosecutors say it is a reflection of which side carried out the biggest war crimes.

HOSPITAL BED

Mladic was spending the night in a prison hospital bed under medical supervision, his lawyer in The Hague said.

"He has not had proper health care for years and his condition is not good," said Aleksandar Aleksic, a prominent Belgrade lawyer appointed by the tribunal Thursday to represent Mladic, whom he met the same day.

The tribunal said medical supervision for a newly arrived detainee was normal routine and in no way implied that Mladic might not make his scheduled appearance in court.

As reported in Serbian media following his capture, Mladic has partially lost the use of one hand due to a stroke suffered years ago.

But Alexsic confirmed the description given by tribunal officials and diplomats who met the general on his arrival, of a man who appears frail but mentally capable and responsive, and was cooperative and talkative.

He has a room to himself with a small outdoor yard where he can walk and has been making phone calls to his family, he said.

"I am going to ask tomorrow that he be given additional medical tests," Aleksic told Reuters.

Mladic will have an opportunity at his initial hearing to talk in public about his health and about conditions in detention, the lawyer added.

Serbian media reports say Mladic is unlikely to enter a plea Friday. Under the rules of the war crimes tribunal, he can defer that step for 30 days, a court spokeswoman confirmed.

For most of his years at large, Mladic managed to live discreetly but safely in Belgrade, relying on loyal supporters who consider him a war hero, not a war criminal.

But as pressure mounted on Serbia to arrest and extradite him, or watch its bid for European Union membership wither, Mladic's network of support apparently dwindled and he was forced to go every deeper underground to avoid capture.

A Belgrade-based lawyer who failed to prevent the general's extradition on grounds of ill health said Thursday that Mladic was treated for cancer in 2009.

Serb Justice Minister Snezana Malovic and Serbian deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric dismissed the claim. A tribunal spokeswoman said the court does not comment on the health of defendants, unless they expressly raise the issue.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Genocide suspect Mladic is extradited after appeal fails

NEW: Ratko Mladic's extradition appeal is rejected His lawyer says Mladic would not be able to participate in a trialHe has been joking, the prosecutor saysMladic is wanted on charges including genocide

Belgrade, Serbia (CNN) -- Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic lost an appeal against extradition and will be sent to an international tribunal to face charges, prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said on Serbian television Tuesday.

Mladic's lawyer said earlier that he expected to learn Tuesday whether the former Bosnian Serb general will get new medical exams. Lawyer Milos Saljic argued that Mladic would not be able to participate in a trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia because of his ill health.

Saljic wants Mladic examined by specialists "who can investigate his specific needs," including a gastroenterologist, cardiologist, psychiatrist and neurologist.

Mladic, 69, is wanted by the tribunal in connection with the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, among other charges. He was captured Thursday after more than 15 years in hiding.

The court has already ruled Mladic is fit to stand trial.

Saljic is also applying for Mladic's unpaid pension from the years when he was in hiding, he said, saying he was acting on behalf of Mladic's family.

Chief prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic denied Monday that Mladic was in poor health, saying that he was "lively and joking," and had asked for Russian classics to read. He said Mladic would be sent to The Hague within days if his extradition appeal fails.

Mladic's son, Darko, told an ultranationalist rally Sunday that that his father is sick.

"He needs medical treatment that he is not getting," the younger Mladic said.

He described his father as "a freedom fighter," and said he had "defended his own nation, defended his people, which was his job."

The younger Mladic called on protesters to keep the demonstration peaceful on Sunday, but protesters clashed with Serbian police at the demonstration.

Nearly 20 people were injured in the violence -- seven police and 12 civilians -- according to police. They said they made more than 100 arrests.

The Serbian Radical Party held its protest Sunday in front of Serbia's parliament building.

Mladic gave himself up without a fight Thursday, despite having two handguns, according to Rasim Ljajic, the government minister in charge of searching for fugitive suspected war criminals.

Officials located Mladic in a village called Lazarevo, north of the Serbian capital, after culling information from his former comrades, those who supported him financially and his close family members, Ljajic said.

It is not clear what source led investigators to the former military commander.

His arrest clears a major hurdle that once stood between Serbia and its long-awaited entrance into the European Union, but the move could also usher in political backlash from the country's electorate, some of whom consider Mladic a hero.

The massacre at Srebrenica, which sparked international outcry and preceded a NATO bombing campaign, is now remembered as the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

Mladic is accused of presiding over the five-day slaughter in July 1995, where Muslim men and boys were systematically executed in what was described at the U.N. war crimes tribunal as "the triumph of evil."

Mladic's forces encircled the town, a U.N.-declared "safe area" where thousands of Bosnian Muslims had sought refuge, allegedly conducting wholesale slaughter and rape, despite the presence of a few hundred lightly armed Dutch U.N. peacekeepers charged with protecting the area's residents and its refugees.

The former general is considered the last of the fugitive war criminal suspects in the region, following the capture of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in jail in 2006 during his trial at The Hague.

A medical team has determined that Mladic is healthy enough to be extradited to face a war crimes tribunal, a court spokeswoman in Belgrade said Friday.

While the war crimes suspect suffers from several chronic conditions, the team said there are no immediate problems barring a move.

This comes after five doctors examined Mladic Thursday night, according to Saljic, the lawyer.

CNN's Nic Robertson and Ivan Watson contributed to this report.

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Lawyer: Genocide suspect Ratko Mladic 'a ruin of a man'

Belgrade, Serbia (CNN) -- After more than 15 years in hiding, onetime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic was in a Belgrade jail Thursday night to face charges that he presided over Europe's worst massacre since World War II.

Mladic was the highest-ranking fugitive to remain at large after the conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. His arrest followed a three-year investigation, President Boris Tadic announced in a dramatic news conference Thursday morning.

Tadic told CNN's "Connect the World" that he expected Mladic to be transferred to the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia "within seven days." He said Serbian authorities are still investigating who aided Mladic during his decade and a half on the run, but he called allegations that the country's military sheltered him "rubbish."

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"At the end of the day, he was protected by a very small group of people from his family," Tadic said. He acknowledged that Mladic may have been aided by military officers early on, "but at the end of that process, I don't believe that," Tadic said.

Mladic's lawyer, Milos Saljic, said Mladic's hearing was halted and rescheduled for Friday when he could not address the judge "because of his physical and psychological condition." Saljic called the ex-general "a ruin of a man" who has suffered two heart attacks and three strokes since 1996.

"He is no longer the monumental personality he used to be," Saljic said. He said doctors would evaluate whether Mladic is fit to return to court on Friday.

Hundreds of riot police patrolled central Belgrade as the 69-year-old Mladic made his initial appearance on war crimes charges in a special Belgrade court. One squad chased away a crowd of 100 to 200 people, including one man who waved a Serbian flag, but they were far outnumbered by other people eating dinner or otherwise enjoying a warm spring night.

The former Yugoslav army officer was the commanding general of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-95 war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has charged him with leading a genocidal campaign against Bosnia's Muslim and Croat populations, including "direct involvement" in the 1995 killings of nearly 8,000 men and boys in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica -- the worst European massacre since the Holocaust.

However, Mladic remains a hero to some Serbs, and small outbursts of anger were seend in Belgrade late Thursday. A passenger in a speeding car hurled a full beer can at a Serbian television truck, while another driver shouted, "I like Ratko Mladic" and an obscenity as he passed the courthouse.

After midnight, three men stood beneath the building, clapping and chanting Mladic's name.

"That man fought for us, for my father and mother," 28-year-old Goran Stijela told CNN. One of his companions, Midorag Rodjenkov, called Mladic "a martyr for Christ."

Mladic was transferred from Lazarevo, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Belgrade, earlier Thursday. In a statement issued after the arrest, the tribunal said it looked forward to his "expeditious transfer" to its custody in The Hague, Netherlands, for trial.

Once there, he will be allowed to enter a plea to the charges against him, which include genocide, crimes against humanity and violating the laws of war, the court said.

"The arrest of Mladic is a milestone in the Tribunal's history and brings the institution closer to the successful completion of its mandate," the tribunal said. The sole remaining fugitive from the court is former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, "and the Tribunal hopes he will be arrested in the very near future."

Mladic is accused of leading a campaign of "ethnic cleansing," widespread killing, forcible deportations, torture, forced labor and physical, psychological and sexual violence during the Bosnian war.

The international police agency Interpol praised the arrest as "a triumph for international justice." Interpol officials had met with Tadic in January to discuss closer cooperation in the hunt for war crimes suspects, the organization's secretary-general, Ronald Noble, said in a statement on Mladic's capture.

"After today's arrest, no one should doubt Serbia's commitment to the rule of law and justice," Noble said.

Tadic said the arrest will help the process of reconciliation throughout the Balkans and should pave the way for Serbia's entry into the European Union. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton hailed the arrest as a victory for "the rule of law in Serbia" and praised Tadic and his government for "this courageous action."

Mladic had been on the run since the Bosnian war ended in 1995. The Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List was the first to report his arrest, saying police were doing DNA tests on a suspect to determine whether he was the notorious former commander.

Mladic was the last fugitive from a triumvirate of Serbian leaders accused of genocide against Muslims and Croats as the three populations fought a brutal war over Yugoslav territory.

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was toppled in 2000 and sent to face charges in The Hague, but he died in 2006 while the trial was still going on. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 and is now on trial in The Hague.

Karadzic was removed from power under the Dayton Peace accords that ended the Bosnian war. He went into hiding, grew a full white beard and long hair, and was working in an alternative medicine clinic in Belgrade -- right under the noses of authorities -- when he was captured.

Karadzic has insisted on defending himself at The Hague. Prosecutors accuse him of deliberately obstructing the trial with delaying tactics, and judges have threatened to impose a defense lawyer on him if he does not cooperate.

The Bosnian war was the longest of the conflicts spawned by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Backed by the Milosevic government, Bosnian Serb forces seized control of more than half the country and launched a campaign against the Muslim and Croat populations.

The United Nations declared Srebrenica to be a safe haven, and tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims flooded in, expecting protection. But a small contingent of Dutch U.N. peacekeepers, lightly armed and aware that no reinforcements were coming, stood aside and allowed Mladic's troops to overrun Srebrenica, leading to the slaughter.

NATO intervened in the conflict, bombing Bosnian Serb military positions. The United States brought the leaders of the warring factions to an agreement in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995, bringing the violence to an end.

CNN's Ivan Watson, Richard Allen Greene, Joe Sterling, Moni Basu and Lateef Mungin contributed to this report.

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