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I was defending my country, says Mladic

THE HAGUE: Wartime Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic denounced genocide charges against him as “obnoxious” on Friday, telling a U.N. court he simply defended his country while insisting he was gravely ill.

“I would like to read and receive these obnoxious charges against me,” the man known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” said at his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia since his arrest last week after 16 years on the run.

Better known from media images as a stocky commander in war fatigues, Mr. Mladic appeared before a panel of three judges in The Hague in a grey suit and gold and black tie, markedly older and thinner but still defiant.

“I defended my people and my country,” the 69-year-old ex-General, charged with Europe's worst atrocities since World War II, said from the dock.

“I did not kill Croats as Croats, I was just defending my country,” Mr. Mladic insisted after saluting the judges with his left hand.

He said he was “a gravely ill man” and needed more time to study the “monstrous words” in the indictment before entering a plea.

But he insisted he did not need help to move around after court guards offered to take his arm and guide him to the dock.

“I am General Mladic and the whole world knows who I am,” he said. “I don't want to be taken by the arm like I am a blind man. I can walk by myself.”

Widows and mothers of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys that forms the crux of the genocide charges, followed the proceedings live on television in Bosnia.

“I hope God makes him burn in hell,” hissed one woman, seated among the gravestones of victims buried at the Potocari memorial centre. Presiding judge Alphons Orie read the charge sheet as Mladic listened impassively.

“Ratko Mladic and others formed the objective to eliminate the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica by killing the men and boys and forcibly removing the women, young children and some elderly men,” the judge said.

Judge Orie set July 4 as the date for Mr. Mladic's next appearance, by when he will be required to enter pleas to the 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against him. Failing to do so, an automatic not-guilty plea will be entered on his behalf.

Accused of committing atrocities during Bosnia's 1992-95 war that killed 100,000 people, Mr. Mladic was arrested in northeast Serbia last Thursday.

He is accused of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre — Europe's worst mass killing since World War II — and the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 died.

He was flown to the Netherlands on

Tuesday to stand trial before the ICTY. — AFP

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