RATKO MLADIC, the indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, appeared in court in Belgrade yesterday evening, the first stage of an extradition process that is expected to see him sent shortly to The Hague.
During a brief appearance, Mladic was too frail to understand the proceedings, according to a lawyer, Milos Saljic. They were adjourned and questioning of Mladic is due to resume today, said Bruno Vekaric, the deputy war crimes prosecutor.
Mladic is almost certain to appear eventually before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague to stand trial on 15 charges alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity. These are connected to his oversight of the Bosnian Serb army’s conduct in the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995.
More than 100,000 people died in the conflict, which included indiscriminate shelling of civilians in the capital, Sarajevo, during which some 10,000 people died, and the genocidal murder of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
Mladic, who had evaded capture for 16 years since his indictment, was arrested in the village of Lazarevo, near the northeastern town of Zrenjanin, about 100km from the capital Belgrade, in the early hours of yesterday. He was using the pseudonym Milorad Komadic and was said to be living in a house owned by a cousin.
Serb interior ministry and intelligence sources were quoted as saying Mladic was armed but did not resist arrest. Unlike Radovan Karadzic, the other Bosnian Serb leader currently on trial in The Hague, Mladic had not altered his appearance during almost 16 years as a fugitive – 10 of which were spent living in Belgrade apparently under the protection of loyal elements of the Serbian security services.
Last night, Serbian television showed a slightly stooped and shuffling figure, wearing a baseball cap and dark coloured anorak, surrounded by five guards in uniform, making his way slowly inside a detention block, apparently to a courtroom. He had short, gray hair but his face could not be seen.
Mladic can appeal any decision to extradite him but he could be in The Hague as early as next week. President of Serbia Boris Tadic said the arrest “removes a heavy burden from Serbia and closes a page of our unfortunate history”.
The arrest, a key milestone on Serbia’s quest to be accepted as a candidate state for EU membership, was hailed by international leaders.
Baroness Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, who arrived on a planned visit to Belgrade just hours after Mladic’s detention, said his arrest was “a very important day for international justice and for the rule of law”.
She added: “People will also be thinking about Serbia and its future in the European Union. What I know is that we will approach that with renewed energy because of today.”
EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Füle said: “A great obstacle on the Serbian road to the European Union has been removed . . . If the question is whether Serbia is closer today to the European Union than it was yesterday, the answer is absolutely yes.”
French president Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking at the G8 meeting in Deauville, said the arrest “wasn’t an easy decision” for Mr Tadic and he called on the EU to respond by making it clear Serbia’s future lay within the union.
US president Barack Obama said Mladic will now have to answer to his victims and the world in a court of law.
“Today is an important day for the families of Mladic’s many victims, for Serbia, for Bosnia, for the United States, and for international justice,” he said. “While we will never be able to bring back those who were murdered, Mladic will now have to answer to his victims, and the world, in a court of law.”