People I don't feel bad for: Ratko Mladic
Mladic May Seek to Use Poor Health to Avoid The Hague
BELGRADE, Serbia - Life on the run has not been kind to Ratko Mladic, a fugitive in his own land from war crimes charges. His mouth droops sideways and his skin is bluish and mottled red, the pallor of poor hygiene, bad nutrition and self-imposed prison, according to his longtime friend and defense lawyer, Milos Saljic.When Serbian investigators arrested the former general, 68, in his cousin’s house on Thursday they found $800 in cash and a sack of medicine, with prescription drugs for skin treatment and various maladies over the years that included two heart attacks and three strokes that at one point left him completely paralyzed, the lawyer said.
Bruno Vekaric, the deputy war crimes prosecutor, conceded that Mr. Mladic was receiving medicine, but that he “responds very rationally to everything that is going on.” Mr. Vekaric, the target of Mr. Mladic’s wrath in the first day of the extradition hearing on Thursday, said that the prisoner had already been examined by doctors and that he appeared to be moving his hand during the second 45-minute court hearing on Friday afternoon.
The haggard state of Mr. Mladic - who eluded Serbian authorities for more than 15 years - may offer him one more chance to evade a prison cell. His family and lawyer are now angling to seek a team of what they call “neutral” doctors who could evaluate him and deliver an opinion on whether his physical and mental health is fragile enough to place him in a hospital or nursing home.
“If he goes to The Hague, he won’t last three years. He will come back in a coffin,” said Mr. Saljic, who has known Mr. Mladic since he was a military judge in 1967. “If you put a bird in a cage you can give them whatever it wants, but it’s not going to be happy.”
To drive that point home, Mr. Mladic’s son, Darko, stood in front of the steps of a special courthouse in Belgrade on Friday to deliver a statement about his father’s poor health. Inside the court, Mr. Mladic was facing the second day of a closed extradition hearing to transfer him to The Hague to face genocide charges for his role in the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in 1995.
His son said that his right hand was partially paralyzed and that he could barely speak. Mr. Saljic noted that Mr. Mladic’s responses to basic questions about his education and military career wandered from subject to subject and that in his present state he should not be moved.
But the investigating judge on the case made a preliminary finding that Mr. Mladic should be transferred to The Hague, although Mr. Mladic still has the right to challenge the decision. Mr. Saljic said that he would lodge a complaint on Monday and that he would press for a broad medical evaluation by doctors who are free of government influence. The family said that a team of doctors had volunteered for that role from Russia, which historically has been a Serbian ally.
After an appeal, a three-judge panel must make a ruling within three days that then must be signed by the Serbian justice minister.
Mr. Mladic’s arrest has been trumpeted by the Serbian government as a victory that qualifies the nation, once a pariah, for European Union membership and a Western embrace.
But his supporters now are defining him as a spent old man who in his final days on the run was protected by a cousin and lived in a moldy house with dusty, unopened windows that was strewn with clothes and the remains of pizza. It is an image at odds with his wanted posters that show the burly commander of the Bosnian Serb Army during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which killed more than 100,000 people. Thousands of Muslims and Croats were killed, tortured or driven out in a campaign to purge the region of non-Serbs.
Over two days of hearings, Mr. Mladic has showed different sides of his personality. On Thursday, the hearing was abruptly halted after Mr. Mladic gave wandering answers to basic questions about his education and military background and said scornfully that he did not like Mr. Vekaric, the deputy war crimes prosecutor. But by Friday, the former general displayed some of his old charisma, inviting one prosecutor to join him for a chess game in prison and apologizing to another for his brusque manner a day earlier.
According to several people at the hearing, including his lawyer, he refused to read the war crimes indictment, saying he did not recognize the authority of the tribunal in The Hague. He also made a number of specific requests for his prison cell: Russian classics by Tolstoy and Gogol, a television set, fresh strawberries and a photograph of his grandchildren. “You’ve taken enough money from me. At least I can get some strawberries,” he said in court, according to several witnesses, a quip that prompted Mr. Vekaric to offer to bring the fruit.
He also asked to pay a visit to the Belgrade grave of his daughter, Ana, who apparently committed suicide in 1994.
Mr. Mladic has been having reunions with his family, including two visits on Thursday. When Mr. Saljic saw him, for the first time in 10 years, he said he was struck by his appearance. But he still showed traces of the old general, quipping about the lawyer’s tactic late last year to try to have him legally declared dead.
“What the hell were you thinking,” the lawyer said Mr. Mladic mocked him. “Was this some kind of a distraction?”
Source.
"He's an old man, leave him alone." I don't care how old or sick he is. He helped contribute to the unnecessary suffering of a great many people. He deserves to rot in a cell for the rest of his life as far as I'm concerned.
Mods, may I please request a tag for the International Criminal Court for future use?
BELGRADE, Serbia - Life on the run has not been kind to Ratko Mladic, a fugitive in his own land from war crimes charges. His mouth droops sideways and his skin is bluish and mottled red, the pallor of poor hygiene, bad nutrition and self-imposed prison, according to his longtime friend and defense lawyer, Milos Saljic.When Serbian investigators arrested the former general, 68, in his cousin’s house on Thursday they found $800 in cash and a sack of medicine, with prescription drugs for skin treatment and various maladies over the years that included two heart attacks and three strokes that at one point left him completely paralyzed, the lawyer said.
Bruno Vekaric, the deputy war crimes prosecutor, conceded that Mr. Mladic was receiving medicine, but that he “responds very rationally to everything that is going on.” Mr. Vekaric, the target of Mr. Mladic’s wrath in the first day of the extradition hearing on Thursday, said that the prisoner had already been examined by doctors and that he appeared to be moving his hand during the second 45-minute court hearing on Friday afternoon.
The haggard state of Mr. Mladic - who eluded Serbian authorities for more than 15 years - may offer him one more chance to evade a prison cell. His family and lawyer are now angling to seek a team of what they call “neutral” doctors who could evaluate him and deliver an opinion on whether his physical and mental health is fragile enough to place him in a hospital or nursing home.
“If he goes to The Hague, he won’t last three years. He will come back in a coffin,” said Mr. Saljic, who has known Mr. Mladic since he was a military judge in 1967. “If you put a bird in a cage you can give them whatever it wants, but it’s not going to be happy.”
To drive that point home, Mr. Mladic’s son, Darko, stood in front of the steps of a special courthouse in Belgrade on Friday to deliver a statement about his father’s poor health. Inside the court, Mr. Mladic was facing the second day of a closed extradition hearing to transfer him to The Hague to face genocide charges for his role in the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in 1995.
His son said that his right hand was partially paralyzed and that he could barely speak. Mr. Saljic noted that Mr. Mladic’s responses to basic questions about his education and military career wandered from subject to subject and that in his present state he should not be moved.
But the investigating judge on the case made a preliminary finding that Mr. Mladic should be transferred to The Hague, although Mr. Mladic still has the right to challenge the decision. Mr. Saljic said that he would lodge a complaint on Monday and that he would press for a broad medical evaluation by doctors who are free of government influence. The family said that a team of doctors had volunteered for that role from Russia, which historically has been a Serbian ally.
After an appeal, a three-judge panel must make a ruling within three days that then must be signed by the Serbian justice minister.
Mr. Mladic’s arrest has been trumpeted by the Serbian government as a victory that qualifies the nation, once a pariah, for European Union membership and a Western embrace.
But his supporters now are defining him as a spent old man who in his final days on the run was protected by a cousin and lived in a moldy house with dusty, unopened windows that was strewn with clothes and the remains of pizza. It is an image at odds with his wanted posters that show the burly commander of the Bosnian Serb Army during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which killed more than 100,000 people. Thousands of Muslims and Croats were killed, tortured or driven out in a campaign to purge the region of non-Serbs.
Over two days of hearings, Mr. Mladic has showed different sides of his personality. On Thursday, the hearing was abruptly halted after Mr. Mladic gave wandering answers to basic questions about his education and military background and said scornfully that he did not like Mr. Vekaric, the deputy war crimes prosecutor. But by Friday, the former general displayed some of his old charisma, inviting one prosecutor to join him for a chess game in prison and apologizing to another for his brusque manner a day earlier.
According to several people at the hearing, including his lawyer, he refused to read the war crimes indictment, saying he did not recognize the authority of the tribunal in The Hague. He also made a number of specific requests for his prison cell: Russian classics by Tolstoy and Gogol, a television set, fresh strawberries and a photograph of his grandchildren. “You’ve taken enough money from me. At least I can get some strawberries,” he said in court, according to several witnesses, a quip that prompted Mr. Vekaric to offer to bring the fruit.
He also asked to pay a visit to the Belgrade grave of his daughter, Ana, who apparently committed suicide in 1994.
Mr. Mladic has been having reunions with his family, including two visits on Thursday. When Mr. Saljic saw him, for the first time in 10 years, he said he was struck by his appearance. But he still showed traces of the old general, quipping about the lawyer’s tactic late last year to try to have him legally declared dead.
“What the hell were you thinking,” the lawyer said Mr. Mladic mocked him. “Was this some kind of a distraction?”
Source.
"He's an old man, leave him alone." I don't care how old or sick he is. He helped contribute to the unnecessary suffering of a great many people. He deserves to rot in a cell for the rest of his life as far as I'm concerned.
Mods, may I please request a tag for the International Criminal Court for future use?