A clash of wills: First glimpses of the trial

Just got my first glimpse of General Ratko Mladic in an international courtroom — and it was quite a performance. Revered by his supporters as a mythical, God-like figure, the once all-powerful commander of the Bosnian Serb army was by turns rambling, defiant, domineering, melodramatic, conciliatory, argumentative, and seemingly on the verge of tears. During his fourth appearance before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, he depicted himself as a gravely ill man in urgent need of medical attention. At one point, he requested an extra five-minute meeting with his wife "if I survive to the end of this hearing."

The pre-trial hearing was delayed by almost an hour after Mladic complained of recurring urethra and kidney stone problems. According to his lawyer, Branko Lukic, he experienced a fainting fit this morning, collapsing into the arms of a prison guard standing nearby. Brought to the court in a convoy of prison vehicles from the Scheveningen detention facility, Mladic demanded to meet with Serbian military doctors who treated him a stroke that he suffered in 1996, shortly after the end of the Bosnia war.

While today’s hearing was not quite as dramatic as the July 7 session (see link to Youtube video above), when Mladic was removed from the courtroom for obstreperous behavior, it suggested that he is likely to prove a difficult, unpredictable defendant. He clashed repeatedly with presiding judge Alphons Orie over his legal and medical rights and courtroom procedures, warning that the trial "will not end well if you put too much pressure on me."

"The more pressure I am put under, the stronger I get," said Mladic, slurring his words even as he waved a pointed finger in the direction of judge.

The trial is already shaping up as a clash of wills between the 69-year-old general and the silver-haired Dutch judge in his resplendent black and red robes. Mladic stopped calling Orie "judge" after Orie declined to address him as "general." Today, he refused to stand up when the judge entered the court room, provoking Orie to remark that security guards would help him respect court traditions if he had difficulty rising from his seat.

The accused remained firmly in his seat at the end of the hearing as everybody else in the courtroom rose in the traditional gesture of respect for the judge. "Excuse me," said Mladic in heavily accented English, before demanding once again to be seen by doctors from Serbia and Russia. He looked gaunt and considerably thinner than in previous court appearances.

Mladic is accused of an act of "genocide" in ordering the murder of more than 7,000 Muslim men in mass executions in Srebrenica in July 1995, and "crimes against humanity" during the three-year siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. "I am not defending myself," he told the court today. "I am defending General Mladic…and the whole people of Serbia." This prompted the judge to remind him that the Serbian nation was not on trial — and that he should focus on his own, individual defense.