THE HAGUE, Netherlands – He put on a cap, defying the rules of the courtroom. He gestured to the packed public gallery despite a judge ordering him not to. He threatened a boycott because his chosen lawyers weren’t there.

A belligerent Ratko Mladic repeatedly disobeyed and shouted at judges Monday during an arraignment at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. Finally, the former Serb general was thrown out of the hearing and the court entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to 11 charges of masterminding the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war.

Additional Photos

Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic wears a cap despite court orders not to at the U.N.’s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday.

The 69-year-old’s courtroom theatrics came at the start of a solemn week for survivors of the massacre he is accused of orchestrating — the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995 in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Officials are preparing to rebury 600 people whose remains were dug out of mass graves in the past year and identified using DNA tests. The bodies unearthed in the hills surrounding Srebrenica will be laid to rest July 11 at a cemetery for victims of the mass killings.

Mladic’s actions in court elicited anger from survivors of the 1992-95 Bosnian war and raised the prospect of another turbulent trial at the U.N. court that may offer victims more heartache than justice.

In Srebrenica, the site of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, survivor Fadila Efendic said Mladic’s behavior was like salt in her wounds.

“We are made to suffer, to mourn our children, we are forced to watch him make a circus in the court,” she said. “This should be a short trial. He should be treated the way he treated our children, how he treated thousands of innocent people … killed at his orders.”

Mladic had threatened to boycott Monday’s hearing, only his second public appearance since Serbia extradited him to The Hague in May, because the court had not appointed Belgrade attorney Milos Saljic and a Russian lawyer to represent him.

Shortly before guards escorted Mladic from court, he shouted at Presiding Judge Alphons Orie, “You want to impose my defense. What kind of a court are you?”

He continued yelling in Serbian, “You are not allowing me to defend myself. … You are not allowing me to breathe.”

The judge told him that the court’s registry is studying Mladic’s request to be represented by the lawyers.

When Orie began reading out the charges, Mladic said, “No, no, no! Don’t read it to me, not another word,” and pulled off his earphones, slumping back in his seat with a frown.

After Orie warned him to be quiet or be removed, Mladic shot back: “Remove me.”

Such defiant outbursts are not new at the tribunal. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and other high-ranking suspects tried to use their trials to discredit the court and promote nationalist ideologies. Milosevic died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could be reached in his case.

Legal expert Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, said Orie will try to give victims a sense of justice by reining in Mladic’s antics, while at the same time ensuring his rights are protected.

Related Stories