Serbia extradited Ratko Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in on Tuesday where he will stand trial for genocide, 16 years after he was charged by the court for the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the worst massacre of civilians in Europe since World War II.
A Serbian government jet carrying the Bosnian Serb wartime military commander landed in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and pulled into a hangar, out of view of reporters and live television cameras. A Dutch police helicopter stood just outside the hangar's entrance, and police vehicles also pulled up near by.
Jailed war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic was allowed Tuesday to visit the Belgrade grave of his daughter, Ana, who committed suicide during Bosnia's war. He left a bouquet of white flowers and a red rose.
Jailed war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic was allowed Tuesday to visit the Belgrade grave of his daughter, Ana, who committed suicide during Bosnia's war. He left a bouquet of white flowers and a red rose.
The government plane touched down at Rotterdam airport hours after judges in Belgrade rejected his appeal to delay his extradition on grounds of ill health, and the Serbian justice minister authorized his handover to U.N. officials in The Hague.
Mladic will be taken to the U.N. detention unit near The Hague to undergo a formal identification process. Within a few days he will be brought before a U.N. judge for a preliminary hearing.
"Mladic is charged with the most serious crimes against humanity and the most serious violations of the international humanitarian law," Malovic said.
"By handing over Mladic to The Hague, Serbia has fulfilled its international and moral obligation," Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said. "We have proven that we keep our word."
The extradition to The Hague, Netherlands came the same day judges rejected Mladic's appeal to stop the handover on the grounds that the 69-year-old is not mentally and physically fit to stand trial.
Mladic is charged at the tribunal with genocide for atrocities committed by Serb troops under his command during Bosnia's 1992-'95 war, including the notorious Srebrenica massacre in July of 1995.
Mladic attorney Milos Saljic visited him in his jail cell in the early afternoon and said the former general was crying and very emotional during what he called a farewell visit by his wife and sister. They brought him a big suitcase with clothing he will need in The Hague, Saljic said.
Mladic was arrested Thursday in a village north of Belgrade after 16 years on the run, looking worn and disheveled. In addition to the appeal, Saljic had asked for a team of doctors to examine Mladic, who is said to have suffered at least two strokes.
Earlier Tuesday, Mladic was briefly released from his jail cell, traveling in a secret high-security armored convoy to a suburban cemetery where he visited the grave of his daughter, who killed herself in 1994.
At the black marble grave, Mladic left a lit candle and a small white bouquet of flowers with a red rose in the middle.
"We didn't announce his visit to the grave because it is his private thing and because it represented a security risk," deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said. "The whole operation lasted for exactly 22 minutes and passed without a glitch. He was at the grave for a few minutes. I've been told that he reacted emotionally."
Mladic had repeatedly demanded that he be allowed to visit the grave, a memorial he had avoided for years as he tried to remain underground.
"We had cameras there and 24-hour surveillance, so he could absolutely not show up there," chief Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told The Associated Press.
Mladic's 23-year-old daughter Ana, a medical student, committed suicide in 1994 with her father's pistol. She reportedly never wrote a suicide note, but media at the time said she ended her life at Mladic's Belgrade family house because of depression caused by her father's role in the war.
Mladic has rejected the official investigation into her case and claimed she was killed by his wartime enemies, saying the pistol was found in her left hand, although she was right-handed.
Kadira Gabeljic, whose husband and two sons were killed in the Srebrenica slaughter, reacted with disbelief and anger at Mladic's visit to his daughter's grave, saying she almost fainted at the news.
So far, she said, forensic experts have managed to exhume only part of the remains of her sons, Mesud and Meho, who were 16 and 21 when killed.
"He was allowed to do it, and I am still searching for my children for the past 16 years, ever since Srebrenica happened," she said.
"My husband had been found, but what about my children?" she said. "I will wait for years. I might even die before their complete remains are found."
Serb nationalists in Serbia and parts of Bosnia still consider Mladic a hero the general who against all odds tried to defend ethnic Serbs in the Bosnian conflict. In the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, thousands of supporters protested his arrest Tuesday, in the biggest demonstration so far in the country.
Demonstrators chanted Mladic's name, and carried his picture alongside those of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, whom they consider their biggest allies.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/31/136814429/judges-reject-mladics-extradition-appeal?ft=1&f=1004
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