War crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic arrested
War crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic was arrested Thursday in village of Lazarevo. Gen. Ratko Mladic, Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect, has been arrested in Serbia after years in hiding, the country's president said Thursday.
Section:Picture story
A man reads a special edition of the local newspapers, with the photo of Ratko Mladic and the words “Ratko Mladic Arrested” printed on the front page in Serbian Cyrillic script in central Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Marko Drobnjakovic Associated Press
Ratko Mladic appeared Thursday evening at a closed session in a Belgrade court, looking frail and walking very slowly as he was escorted by four guards in the first step of the extradition process. He wore a navy-blue jacket and a baseball hat with gray hair sticking out the sides, and carried what appeared to be a towel in his left hand. He could be heard on state TV saying "good day" to someone in the court. A guard could be heard telling him, "Let's go, general."
Associated Press
In this handout image released by the Serbian government Thursday, May 26, 2011, Ratko Mladic enters court in Belgrade, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Serbian Government, handout Associated Press
Mladic's lawyer said the judge cut short the questioning because the suspect's "poor physical state" left him unable to communicate. Attorney Milos Saljic said Mladic asserts that he will not answer to the authority of the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in the Netherlands. "He is aware that he is under arrest, he knows where he is and he said he does not recognize The Hague tribunal," Saljic said, adding that Mladic needs medical care and "should not be moved in such a state."
Associated Press
Milos Saljic, center, the lawyer of the family of Ratko Mladic, gives a press statement in front of a house owned by Ratko Mladic in a suburb of in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Marko Drobnjakovic Associated Press
People that support Ratko Mladic chant songs as they wave Serbian flags in central Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Marko Drobnjakovic Associated Press
The nationalist Serbian Radical Party said Mladic was a "hero" and described his seizure as "one of the hardest moments in Serbian history." The extreme-right group 1389 said the arrest was "a treason" and called on citizens to pour into the streets and protest.
Associated Press
A supporter of Ratko Mladic lights up a flare as others chant songs at a protest against Mladic’s arrest in central Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Marko Drobnjakovic Associated Press
Members of the Serbian riot police run down a street at a protest against Ratko Mladic’s arrest in central Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Marko Drobnjakovic Associated Press
Mladic commanded fierce devotion among his men, and many Bosnian Serb soldiers pledged to follow him to the death. Mladic's bodyguards once said he had made a death pact with one of them to shoot him rather than let him be captured. He enjoyed basking in the adoration of his admirers during military parades, and rubbing shoulders with U.N. commanders in Bosnia before he became a fugitive.
Associated Press
Supporters of Ratko Mladic chant songs and wave Serbian flags at a protest against Mladic’s arrest in central Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Marko Drobnjakovic Associated Press
A bullnecked field commander with narrow, piercing blue eyes, Mladic seized the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and was seen handing candy to Muslim children in the town's square. He assured them everything would be fine and patted one boy on the head. Hours later, his men began days of killing, rape and torture.
This image from file video shows Bosnian Muslim boy Izudin Alic being patted on the head by a grinning Ratko Mladic in 1995 as Mladic assures him that everyone in Srebrenica, Bosnia, would be safe as other young Bosnian Muslims look on, just hours before overseeing the murder of some 8,000 men and boys. But Izudin Alic escaped with his life to bear witness to the incident. Sitting in his home in Srebrenica, Bosnia, on Tuesday May 31, 2011, 24-year old Alic recalls the sunny day in 1995 when he met with the Bosnian Serb military commander Mladic, who gave him chocolate, even as soldiers were killing his father in the nearby woods. The fugitive Mladic has been arrested on charges relating to alleged war crimes during the Bosnian 1992-95 war.
APTN Associated Press
In this Wednesday, September 18, 1996 file photo, six International War Crimes Tribunal Investigators clear away soil and debris from dozens of Srebrenica victims buried in a mass grave near the village of Pilica, approx 55kms (32 miles) north east of Tuzla, at a former pig farm.
Staton R. Winter, File Associated Press
Obsessed with his nation's history, Mladic saw Bosnia's war as a chance for revenge against 500 years of the Ottoman Turks' occupation of Serbia. He viewed Bosnian Muslims as Turks and called them that as a racial slur.
Associated Press
In this Sunday, Feb. 4, 1996 file photo, skeletal remains of victims of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica lie on a hilltop just west of Srebrenica, Bosnia.
Alexander Zemlianichenko, File Associated Press
In this Thursday, July 13, 1995 file photo, an unidentified woman and her mother, refugees from Srebrenica, cry together because they don’t know what happened to the rest of their family, at a U.N. base 12 kms south of Tuzla, 100kms (60 miles) north of Sarajevo.
Darko Bandic, File Associated Press
But even as Balkan war-crimes fugitives such as Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic were brought to The Hague, Mladic was idolized and sheltered by ultranationalists and ordinary Serbs despite a 10 million euro ($14 million) Serbian government bounty, plus $5 million offered by the U.S. State Department. He was known to have made daring forays into Belgrade to watch soccer games and feast on fish at an elite restaurant.
Associated Press
In this Sept. 1, 1995 photo, Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic plays pool during the pause in talks with U.N. commander Bernard Janvier in the town of Mali Zvornik,Yugoslavia, some 170 kilometers (110miles) south-west of Belgrade.
Sava Radovanovic Associated Press
In this Tuesday, July 10, .2007 file photo, a Bosnian worker passes by a human skull during exhumation at the mass grave site in the village of Budak, Bosnia, a few hundreds meters from the Memorial Center at Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia.
Amel Emric, File Associated Press
In this Tuesday Sept 5, 2006 file photo, a watch belonging to a victim lays in mud during exhumation at the mass grave site find in the village of Zeleni Jadar, in the outskirts of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, 120 kms north of Sarajevo.
Amel Emric, File Associated Press
In this Monday July 17, 1995 file photo, Bosnian refugees cry as their father and husband arrives at the U.N. air base in Tuzla, Bosnia, after he survived the death march of six days from Srebrenica.
Michel Euler, File Associated Press
In this Sunday, Feb. 4, 1996 file photo, skeletal remains of victims of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica lie on a hilltop just west of Srebrenica, Bosnia.
Alexander Zemlianichenko, File Associated Press
In this Monday, March 31, 2003 file photo, a Bosnian Muslim woman weeps as she attends a mass funeral for the first 600 identified victims of the Srebrenica massacre, in the village of Potocari near Srebrenica, 75 kms southeast of Tuzla.
Amel Emric, File Associated Press
In Bosnia, the arrest was welcomed by the head of a group of victims' family members formed to keep the pressure on war crimes investigators. But, added Munira Subasic, "I'm sorry for all the victims who are dead and cannot see this day."
Associated Press
Bosnian Muslim woman Hatidza Mehmedovic says her prayer in front of the wall written with names of victimes of Srebrenica masacre at the memorial center Potocari near Srebrenica, 170 kms north east from Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Thursday May 26 2011.
Amel Emric Associated Press
Bosnian Muslim man Azer Ibric says prayer in front of the grave of his relative at the memorial center Potocari near Srebrenica, 170 kms north east from Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Thursday May, 26, 2011.
Amel Emric Associated Press
A gravestone in memory of victims of the Srebrenica massacre is seen at the Potocari memorial center near Srebrenica, Bosnia, Thursday, May 26, 2011.
Amel Emric Associated Press
Mladic's arrest removed the most important barrier to the Western-leaning Serbian government's efforts to join the European Union and to rehabilitate the country's image as a pariah state that sheltered the men responsible for the worst atrocities of the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Associated Press