Doctors to rule if Mladic fit for trial

Europe\'s most-wanted man was arrested in the early hours of Thursday in a village in northern Serbia ended a 16-year manhunt. He made a first court appearance in Belgrade later the same day.

He is due back in court around midday Friday, Serbian deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric told RTS state television as doctors were to advise if the 69-year-old was healthy enough to be extradited to The Hague where he faces war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity charges.

His first hearing before the Serbian war crimes court on Thursday, hours after his arrest, was halted after his lawyer Milos Saljic said he was too ill to speak.

"The investigative judge tried to question Ratko Mladic but he failed because he (Mladic) is in a difficult psychological and physical condition," Saljic told reporters.

"It is difficult to establish any kind of communication with him," he said.

Vekaric disputed the assessment that Mladic was unable to answer simple questions.

Early on Friday Mladic\'s wife and son arrived at the building of the special court where Mladic is being held, an AFP photographer reported. They were inside for half an hour but did not speak to the press and it is not known if they were able to see Mladic.

Serbian President Boris Tadic announced the arrest of Mladic on Thursday adding that the process expected to take around seven days was already under way to extradite him to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a UN tribunal based in The Hague.

The indictment against him cites the Srebrenica massacre, the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, and the creation of camps and detention centres during the 1992-1995 war, all as part of a campaign directed against Bosnian Muslims.

At Srebrenica in July 1995, 8,000 Muslim men and boys were rounded up and massacred, Europe\'s worst atrocity since World War II.

Tadic would not say how and where Mladic was arrested other than that he was captured on Serbian soil.

But newspapers reported that Serbian intelligence officers and a special war criminals tracking team swooped in the early hours of Thursday on several houses in Lazarevo, a village around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Belgrade, close to the Romanian border.

A house was owned by a relative of Mladic and had been under surveillance for the past two weeks, sources told AFP.

Mladic was found alone in one of the houses, although he was armed, he offered no resistance.

The media reported that the former general has difficulty moving apparently due to a series of strokes. Some papers said he lived alone and a neighbour had to help him get dressed after the arrest.

"Mladic has trouble speaking, one of his hands trembles and he has a neighbour who helps him get dressed," Kurir newspaper said.

Two papers published one of the first photograph seen of Mladic in some 16 years since he went on the run, showing a visibly older and thinner by still recognizable face.

News of Mladic\'s arrest was welcomed around the world but Moscow called for an impartial trial of the alleged war criminal.

Russia views Serbia as a historic ally and was Belgrade\'s most important ally during both the war in Bosnia and the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.

In Serbia, the wartime Bosnian Serb military chief is seen as a hero by many nationalists and some 500 ultra-nationalists protesting the arrest clashed with police Thursday in the northern city of Novi Sad, leaving two people injured.

In Belgrade, a hundred people gathered in the downtown carrying Serbian flags and torches, chanting Mladic\'s name.

Mladic\'s capture ends a tortuous political and judicial saga since he was first indicted in 1995 by the ICTY for his leadership role in the Bosnian war as the former Yugoslavia fell apart.

Even after his indictment, Mladic lived almost openly in Belgrade until 2000 when former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was toppled. The ouster of his one-time mentor robbed Mladic of his untouchable status.

However Mladic continued to hide under military protection, authorities in Serbia have admitted.

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