Hague Tribunal 'can handle Mladic health issues'
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal is fully equipped to deal with any health issues suffered by genocide suspect Ratko Mladic when he is extradited to stand trial in The Hague, a spokeswoman said.
An extradition hearing in Belgrade last night was cut short due to what Mladic’s lawyer Milos Saljic claimed was his client’s poor health.
Mr Saljic says 69-year-old Mladic is too ill to be moved.
Once extradition formalities are completed Mladic is likely to end up at the UN tribunal’s detention unit.
Tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic said the court is “absolutely capable” of dealing with suspects “who could or may have possible health implications or problems that would impact the trial”.
Belgrade B-92 radio said one of Mladic’s arms was paralysed – probably the result of a stroke. In a police photograph after his arrest, Mladic appears hollow-cheeked and shrunken, and footage of his capture shows him shuffling toward the door under police guard.
Mladic’s son claims he had suffered two strokes, has a partially paralysed right hand and can hardly speak.
Deputy Serbian war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said that Mladic is taking a lot of medicine, but “responds very rationally to everything that is going on”.
Ms Jelacic said the tribunal was busy preparing the detention unit and court for Mladic’s arrival. “We can’t do much more until he is transferred here,” she said.
Formally known as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, the court’s detention block has a medical unit staffed by a doctor and assistant. It is designed to provide basic heath care and emergency help if necessary, the tribunal says on its website.
Because of the nature of the crimes and the fact they occurred nearly 20 years ago, most of the detainees are older than in a normal prison, and many have ailments. The tribunal said the average age is 57, but the high standard of medical services “result in the health of many detainees improving while they are incarcerated”.
Even so, the health regime was unable to save former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who is seen as ultimately responsible for the carnage that erupted across the Balkans in the 1990s.
Milosevic died of a heart attack in his cell at the detention unit on March 11, 2006. His trial, aborted after his death, had dragged on for four years due to repeated delays caused by his ill health.
Six days earlier, a former Milosevic ally, Milan Babic, committed suicide in his cell by hanging himself by his belt with a plastic bin liner over his head.
