Thumbs-up from Mladic as he faces genocide charges
Source: Agencies |
May 17, 2012, Thursday
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TWENTY years after his troops began brutally ethnically cleansing Bosnian towns and villages of non-Serbs, General Ratko Mladic went on trial at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal yesterday, accused of 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ailing 70-year-old's appearance at the tribunal marked the end of a long wait for justice to survivors of the 1992-95 war that left some 100,000 people dead.
The trial is also a landmark for the United Nations court and international justice - Mladic is the last suspect from the Bosnian war to go on trial in The Hague.
In Bosnia, leaders and victims hailed a historic day in the country's recovery from its war wounds, while some Serbs lamented Mladic's trial.
"First of all we are expecting from this trial the truth," said President Bakir Izetbegovic. "The truth and then justice for the victims, for the families of the victims. It is the worst period of our history."
But in the former Serb stronghold of Pale, people who gathered to watch the trial on TV applauded as they saw their general enter the courtroom.
"Mladic is our hero, it's sad that we see him there. We blame The Hague and the international community," said Milan Ivanovic, a 20-year-old law student.
Mladic, in a suit and tie, looked healthier than at previous pretrial hearings, but was still a shadow of the burly, strutting wartime general.
He suffered a stroke while in hiding and has had other health problems since arriving in The Hague.
He gave a thumbs-up and clapped toward the court's public gallery as the trial got under way. He occasionally wrote notes and showed no emotion as prosecutors began outlining his alleged crimes.
One woman in the public gallery called him a "vulture" as prosecutors began two days of laying out their case for judges.
After a break in proceedings, Presiding Judge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands rebuked Mladic and the public about "inappropriate interactions" and said he could shield Mladic behind a screen if it continued.
Earlier, Orie said the court was considering postponing the presentation of evidence, due to start May 29, due to "errors" by prosecutors in disclosing evidence to the defense. Prosecutor Dermot Groome said he would not oppose a "reasonable adjournment."
Groome began his opening statement by focusing on the plight of a 14-year-old boy whose father and uncle were among 150 men murdered by Bosnian Serb forces in November 1992, part of a pattern of atrocities aimed at driving Muslims and Croats out of territory coveted by Serbs.
Groome said Mladic's forces continued such killings through 1995, when they massacred some 8,000 Muslim men in the Srebrenica enclave, the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II.
Mladic has refused to enter pleas, but he denies wrongdoing, saying he acted to defend Serbs in Bosnia.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of life imprisonment.
The ailing 70-year-old's appearance at the tribunal marked the end of a long wait for justice to survivors of the 1992-95 war that left some 100,000 people dead.
The trial is also a landmark for the United Nations court and international justice - Mladic is the last suspect from the Bosnian war to go on trial in The Hague.
In Bosnia, leaders and victims hailed a historic day in the country's recovery from its war wounds, while some Serbs lamented Mladic's trial.
"First of all we are expecting from this trial the truth," said President Bakir Izetbegovic. "The truth and then justice for the victims, for the families of the victims. It is the worst period of our history."
But in the former Serb stronghold of Pale, people who gathered to watch the trial on TV applauded as they saw their general enter the courtroom.
"Mladic is our hero, it's sad that we see him there. We blame The Hague and the international community," said Milan Ivanovic, a 20-year-old law student.
Mladic, in a suit and tie, looked healthier than at previous pretrial hearings, but was still a shadow of the burly, strutting wartime general.
He suffered a stroke while in hiding and has had other health problems since arriving in The Hague.
He gave a thumbs-up and clapped toward the court's public gallery as the trial got under way. He occasionally wrote notes and showed no emotion as prosecutors began outlining his alleged crimes.
One woman in the public gallery called him a "vulture" as prosecutors began two days of laying out their case for judges.
After a break in proceedings, Presiding Judge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands rebuked Mladic and the public about "inappropriate interactions" and said he could shield Mladic behind a screen if it continued.
Earlier, Orie said the court was considering postponing the presentation of evidence, due to start May 29, due to "errors" by prosecutors in disclosing evidence to the defense. Prosecutor Dermot Groome said he would not oppose a "reasonable adjournment."
Groome began his opening statement by focusing on the plight of a 14-year-old boy whose father and uncle were among 150 men murdered by Bosnian Serb forces in November 1992, part of a pattern of atrocities aimed at driving Muslims and Croats out of territory coveted by Serbs.
Groome said Mladic's forces continued such killings through 1995, when they massacred some 8,000 Muslim men in the Srebrenica enclave, the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II.
Mladic has refused to enter pleas, but he denies wrongdoing, saying he acted to defend Serbs in Bosnia.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of life imprisonment.
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