FORMER BOSNIAN Serb commander, Ratko Mladic, will appear before judges in The Hague this morning amid new fears that his ill-health could disrupt his trial for genocide. His lawyer claimed yesterday that he is suffering from lymph node cancer.
In an interview with the Serbian daily newspaper Press, lawyer Milos Saljic said the lymph node cancer or lymphoma was the reason Mladic was hospitalised in Belgrade in April 2009, and that he had subsequently had surgery and chemotherapy.
Before he was extradited from Serbia to The Hague on Tuesday evening, a Belgrade court ruled that the 69-year-old general was fit to travel. He was also examined by Dutch doctors when he arrived at Scheveningen high security prison.
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Serge Brammertz, acknowledged on Wednesday that the 69-year-old former general’s health was “a concern”, but said any medical assistance necessary would be provided by the tribunal.
Critics of Mladic – who had lost considerable weight and looked frail when he was arrested – claim, however, that Mr Saljic’s contention is simply part of the defence strategy, and that the cancer is a fabrication aimed at delaying or halting the long-awaited trial.
Ben Ward, deputy director for Europe and central Asia affairs at Human Rights Watch, said the tribunal had learned from past experiences of defendants trying to avoid justice by claiming ill-health.
“We want to avoid what we saw in the Milosevic case, where a combination of complaints about his ill-health and the use of the process to make long speeches delayed things extensively – and were part of the reason he died before there was a verdict.
“If Mladic chooses to be represented by lawyers, then his ability to mount an effective defence is much less dependent on his physical health. As long as he can give instructions to his legal team, the prosecution will be able to go forward.” Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who suffered from high blood pressure and a heart condition, died in March 2006 in his cell in Scheveningen before the end of his trial for genocide and other crimes.
Nerma Jelacic, a spokesperson for the tribunal, said the court’s detention unit is well-equipped and so ill-health need not be a barrier to prosecution.
“Should there be any concerns raised once the actual proceedings start, it would be for the judges of the trial chamber to decide how to assess this and determine if anything additional is needed.”
Mladic – the most senior Bosnian Serb military officer during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 – will be transferred from his prison cell to the court early this morning, well in advance of the hearing.
When he appears before the three judges of the tribunal in courtroom one at 10am local time, charges of genocide, murder, extermination and persecution relating to the Srebrenica massacre in April 1995, in which 8,000 men and boys died, and the siege of Sarajevo, in which 10,000 people died, will be formally read to him.
The former general will then be asked to confirm his identity and to enter a plea to each charge. If he does not enter a plea during today’s hearing, he will have 30 days in which to do so.