Truculent Mladic ejected from Hague courtroom
Source: Agencies |
July 5, 2011, Tuesday
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UNITED Nations judges threw Ratko Mladic out of his own arraignment yesterday after the former Bosnian Serb military chief shouted at them, defied their orders and refused to enter any plea to 11 charges of masterminding the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war.
With Mladic's chair in the courtroom empty, Presiding Judge Alphons Orie entered not guilty pleas on his behalf, in line with the war crimes tribunal's rules for suspects who refuse to plead.
Mladic's contemptuous display drew anger from survivors of the 1992-95 Bosnian war and raised the prospect of another turbulent UN court trial that may offer victims more heartache than justice.
In Srebrenica, the Bosnian town where Mladic is accused of commanding troops who in 1995 killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Europe's worst massacre since World War II, survivor Fadila Efendic called Mladic's behavior salt in her wounds.
"We are made to suffer, to mourn our children, we are forced to watch him make a circus in the court," she said. "This should be a short trial, he should be treated the way he treated our children, how he treated thousands of innocent people ... killed at his orders."
Belligerence
Mladic's courtroom belligerence came just a week before solemn commemorations in Srebrenica marking the 16th anniversary of the massacre.
Next Monday, 600 more bodies unearthed in the last year from mass graves in the hills surrounding the town and identified using DNA will be laid to rest at a cemetery for Srebrenica victims.
The 69-year-old Mladic had threatened to boycott yesterday's hearing, only his second public appearance since Serbia extradited him to The Hague, Netherlands, in late May, because the court had not appointed Belgrade lawyer Milos Saljic and a Russian lawyer as his trial attorneys.
Shortly before guards escorted Mladic from court, he shouted at Orie, "You want to impose my defense, what kind of a court are you?"
He continued yelling in Serbian, "You are not allowing me to defend myself! ... you are not allowing me to breathe."
The judge told him the court's registry was studying Mladic's request to be represented by the lawyers.
When Orie began reading out the charges, Mladic said, "No, no, no! Don't read it to me, not another word," and pulled off his earphones, slumping back in his seat with a frown. After Orie warned him to be quiet or he would be removed, Mladic shot back: "Remove me."
Such bursts of defiance are not new at the tribunal. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and other high-ranking suspects attempted to use their trials to discredit the court and promote nationalist ideologies. Milosevic died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could be reached in his case.
Saljic, the Belgrade lawyer, said Mladic's defiant courtroom performance demonstrated that he is not mentally fit to stand trial.
"Let them now see for themselves his behavior and let them decide accordingly," Saljic said in Belgrade.
With Mladic's chair in the courtroom empty, Presiding Judge Alphons Orie entered not guilty pleas on his behalf, in line with the war crimes tribunal's rules for suspects who refuse to plead.
Mladic's contemptuous display drew anger from survivors of the 1992-95 Bosnian war and raised the prospect of another turbulent UN court trial that may offer victims more heartache than justice.
In Srebrenica, the Bosnian town where Mladic is accused of commanding troops who in 1995 killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Europe's worst massacre since World War II, survivor Fadila Efendic called Mladic's behavior salt in her wounds.
"We are made to suffer, to mourn our children, we are forced to watch him make a circus in the court," she said. "This should be a short trial, he should be treated the way he treated our children, how he treated thousands of innocent people ... killed at his orders."
Belligerence
Mladic's courtroom belligerence came just a week before solemn commemorations in Srebrenica marking the 16th anniversary of the massacre.
Next Monday, 600 more bodies unearthed in the last year from mass graves in the hills surrounding the town and identified using DNA will be laid to rest at a cemetery for Srebrenica victims.
The 69-year-old Mladic had threatened to boycott yesterday's hearing, only his second public appearance since Serbia extradited him to The Hague, Netherlands, in late May, because the court had not appointed Belgrade lawyer Milos Saljic and a Russian lawyer as his trial attorneys.
Shortly before guards escorted Mladic from court, he shouted at Orie, "You want to impose my defense, what kind of a court are you?"
He continued yelling in Serbian, "You are not allowing me to defend myself! ... you are not allowing me to breathe."
The judge told him the court's registry was studying Mladic's request to be represented by the lawyers.
When Orie began reading out the charges, Mladic said, "No, no, no! Don't read it to me, not another word," and pulled off his earphones, slumping back in his seat with a frown. After Orie warned him to be quiet or he would be removed, Mladic shot back: "Remove me."
Such bursts of defiance are not new at the tribunal. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and other high-ranking suspects attempted to use their trials to discredit the court and promote nationalist ideologies. Milosevic died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could be reached in his case.
Saljic, the Belgrade lawyer, said Mladic's defiant courtroom performance demonstrated that he is not mentally fit to stand trial.
"Let them now see for themselves his behavior and let them decide accordingly," Saljic said in Belgrade.
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