Ratko Mladic to make first war crimes court appearance

He was arrested last week in Serbia after 16 years on the run from charges of having committed atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

His lawyer and his family say he is too ill to stand trial but doctors so far declared him fit to be in court.

He is charged with masterminding the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

In his first hearing before the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Gen Mladic is to be asked if he understands the charges against him.

The tribunal charges him with genocide, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts and cruel treatment for his alleged part in a plot to achieve the "elimination or permanent removal" of Muslims from large parts of Bosnia in pursuit of a "Greater Serbia".

As well as Srebrenica, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, Gen Mladic is also charged over the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 people died, Kazinform refers to BBC News.

See www.bbc.co.uk for full version.