Mladic Apologises For His Behavior

Ratko Mladic during Friday's court session

During Friday’s closed session in front of the Hague Tribunal, ICTY, Mladic's defence lawyer, Branko Lukic,  apologised on his client's behalf  to the former Sky News journalist Aernout Van Lynden and “to everybody else.”

The Trial Chamber then decided to disclose the content of the closed session to the public “as the apology was important and in the interest of justice.”

Mladic had called the witness “a liar” and “a CIA spy” on Wednesday, after  Van Lynden's TV reports from the war in Bosnia were played in the courtroom..

Lukic  said that the trial was stressful for Mladic, due to his ill health, and that he uses the same combative tone with  everyone, including his defence team.

The Trial Chamber warned Mladic once again that he would removed from the courtroom if his inappropriate behavior continued.

The Hague Tribunal had already decided, on August 16, to film Ratko Mladic while he was in the courtroom, due to his repeatedly disrespectful use of language.

The cross examination of the witness, Colm Doyle, the former head of the European Community Monitoring Mission in Bosnia, was also resumed during Friday's session.

Doyle once again confirmed that the international community had been  concerned about the heavy weaponary possessed by  the Bosnian Serbs.

However, Doyle could not confirm whether the combatants were paramilitaries or not, since he was not aware of the structure of the Bosnian Serb forces.

The protected witness RM115, one of the survivors of the war in Bosnia, was also scheduled to testify on Friday, but due to the witness' health problems, the testimony has been postponed until Monday.

Mladic, who was arrested in May of last year, has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war during the Bosnian conflict between 1992 and 1995.

He is charged with genocide in Srebrenica in 1995 and in several other Bosnian municipalities in 1992, the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats from municipalities under the control of the Bosnian Serbs, terrorizing Sarajevo citizens with a campaign of shelling and sniping and taking international soldiers as hostages in 1995.

The trial will resume on August 27.