Mladic Refuses to Plea before U.N. Court

Former Bosnian Serb military Chief Ratko Mladic on Monday refused to enter a plea before a U.N. war crimes court and the judge ordered his removal from the courtroom for disruptive behavior.

Security guards removed the 69-year-old after court president Judge Alphons Orie lost patience with his constant interruptions. As he was being taken from the courtroom, an angry Mladic shouted at the three judges, telling them they were not "allowing me to breathe".

Mladic is accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes stemming from the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Dressed in the same grey suit as for his first appearance before the court last month, Mladic repeatedly interrupted Judge Orie, first complaining about not being able to hear the proceedings and then about being cold.

He asked Judge Orie whether he could replace his sky-blue cap, but the judge refused, warning the former general not to communicate with the public gallery and focus his attention on proceedings.

"Mr Mladic if you continue speaking to the public, measures will be taken," Judge Orie warned.

But Mladic persisted and the judge's patience finally ran out.

"Mr Orie, you can do what you whatever you want, without (my lawyers), there's no need for me to receive anything or say anything, you can do whatever you want," Mladic angrily told the court before he was led back to his cell.

The hearing resumed a few minutes later with an empty dock.

Judge Orie then read out the 11 charges against Mladic including his involvement in Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, entering an automatic not guilty plea on all of them according to ICTY regulations.

The three-judge bench added it agreed to grant an application by the court's registrar, John Hocking, for more time to appoint legal counsel for Mladic, who told judges he preferred his Belgrade-based lawyer Milos Saljic and Russian Alexander Mezyayev, as opposed to his current court-appointed lawyer.

ICTY spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic told Agence France Presse that should Mladic wanted to change his plea at any stage he would be able to so.

"He entered a list of seven lawyers very late, only a few days before this hearing," she told AFP.

She said it would depend on how the prosecution and defense prepared for the trial to set a start date.

Accused of committing atrocities during Bosnia's 92-95 war that killed 100,000 people, Mladic faces charges of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre -- Europe's worst mass killing since World War II -- and the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 died.

It could, however, take months to get under way and is likely to last for several years.

Mladic's one-time mentor Slobodan Milosevic died in The Hague four years into his own genocide trial in 2006 after a heart attack.

His former political chief, Radovan Karadzic has been conducting his own defense in his war crimes trial that started in October 2009.

Both Mladic and Karadzic face a maximum sentence of life in prison.