Charges are 'monstrous', says defiant Mladic on his first day in court

The hair is greyer and thinner, the girth is wider, and after suffering a stroke during his 16 years on the run, he moves with considerably less ease, but Ratko Mladic, who appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia yesterday, has lost none of the old aggression.

The defiant former Bosnian Serb commander said the charges against him – that he is responsible for the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995 – were "obnoxious" and "monstrous". He said that he didn't want "to hear a single word or sentence" from the 37-page indictment that – in short – accuses him of the worst war crimes in Europe since the Second World War.

As the former general tried to vent his anger over the indictment at the court in The Hague, its presiding judge, Alphons Orie, politely cut across him and read a shorter version. Mladic said he hadn't bothered to read any of it. His court-appointed lawyer repeated claims that that his client was suffering from terminal cancer.

In the end, he declared that the list of charges comprised "monstrous words" and he claimed to know nothing of the events described by the judge, "nor can I understand them", he added.

"I killed neither Muslims nor Croats, but did my job," Mladic said. "I defended my people, my country, not Ratko Mladic... Now I am defending myself. I just have to say that I want to live to see that I am a free man."

After Mladic refused to enter a plea, Judge Orie set 4 July as the next date for an appearance before the court. This will provide Mladic with more time to study the indictment and circumstances surrounding the trial. If he refuses to enter a plea next month, the court will enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. "I need much more than one month to understand the charges," said Mladic. "Be patient with me, I'm a gravely ill man" he added.

Patience with the man they call the "Butcher of the Balkans" was in short supply in the specially converted conference centre, complete with bullet-proof glass, which adjoins the courtroom and has been set aside as a public gallery. It was packed yesterday with the international media and the families of Mladic's alleged victims. Many commented on his changed appearance and expressed concern that, if his lawyer's statement about his health is true, he may not live long enough to face justice. Some shouted abuse at Mladic. "Monster man, butcher," screamed Bakira Hasecic, who heads an organisation for women raped during the conflict.

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