Ratko Mladic trial told of Srebrenica chaos

Video shown to the court in The Hague showed panicking civilians swamping UN trucks as Bosnian Serb forces neared.

Gen Mladic faces 11 charges, including genocide, over the 1992-95 Bosnian war. A not guilty plea was entered for him.

However, the presiding judge later adjourned the hearing indefinitely due to disclosure errors by prosecutors.

The judge, Alphons Orie, said judges were still analysing the "scope and full impact" of the errors.
Prosecuting counsel Peter McCloskey said that the crimes at Srebrenica had never been in dispute so the prosecution's focus would be on individual criminal responsibility.

He said that the Bosnian Serb Army was not an "army out of control" and that Gen Mladic had been on the ground and in command.

"We have radio intercepts of VRS [Bosnian Serb] soldiers and officers discussing murders. We have video of two of the actual executions themselves. So let me be perfectly clear, the crime will not be the main focus of this prosecution. This case will be primarily about one issue. The individual criminal responsibility of Ratko Mladic," he said.

The court watched video of local people panicking in a UN compound outside Srebrenica on 11 July 1995 as Bosnian Serb forces approached, followed by scenes of Gen Mladic triumphantly entering the town.

"We give this town to the Serbs as a gift," he says to the camera.
Another video playing in court showed Gen Mladic addressing a bus full of Muslims, telling them: "I am giving you your life as a gift."

More footage showed Gen Mladic berating Dutch UN peacekeepers.
Mr McCloskey concluded by saying that Srebrenica "was a Bosnian genocide that we must never forget".
During the evidence Gen Mladic listened intently, occasionally making notes.

The Srebrenica massacre was the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II.
Serb fighters overran the enclave in eastern Bosnia - supposedly under the protection of Dutch UN peacekeepers. Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were separated off, shot dead and bulldozed into mass graves - later to be dug up and reburied in more remote spots.

Gen Mladic is also charged in connection with the 44-month siege of Sarajevo during which more than 10,000 people died.

'Criminal endeavour' On the first day of the trial on Wednesday, the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) argued that Gen Mladic had intended to "ethnically cleanse" Bosnia.

Gen Mladic in Zepa: "I am giving you your life as a present"

Prosecuting counsel Dermot Groome said that by the time Gen Mladic and his troops had "murdered thousands in Srebrenica", they were "well-rehearsed in the craft of murder".

He then showed judges video of the aftermath of a notorious shelling of a market in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which dozens of people died.

Mr Groome said there was "no doubt" that Gen Mladic had controlled the shelling of Continue Reading