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, General Mladic is to be asked if he understands the charges against him.

The tribunal indictment 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, Mladic is also charged over the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 people died.

Mladic will be asked if he wishes to enter a plea. If he does not enter one within 30 days, the judges will enter pleas of not guilty on his behalf.

His lawyer in Serbia before he was extradited on Tuesday, Milos Saljic, said Mladic would not enter any pleas at the hearing.

A spokeswoman for the tribunal, Nerma Jelacic, said Serbian lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic had been appointed to represent Mladic for the hearing.

He may then choose a permanent counsel for the trial, or opt to conduct his own defence.

Mladic has been examined by doctors in the medical facility of the detention unit at The Hague since his arrival on Tuesday night, but Jelacic said it was "nothing unusual" for tests to be carried out and that Mladic would be appearing in court.

On Thursday, Aleksic said of his client: "He has not had proper health care for years and his condition is not good."

Also on Thursday, Saljic said Mladic had been treated for cancer two years ago at a Belgrade hospital.

Saljic has previously been quoted as saying by Serbian media that his client had suffered three strokes and two heart attacks, was too ill to be sent to The Hague and would not live to the end of a trial.

Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack at The Hague in 2006, four years into his own genocide trial.