Mladic Visits Daughter’s Grave in Belgrade

BELGRADE, Serbia — Ratko Mladic, the international war crimes suspect awaiting a court ruling on his transfer to a United Nations tribunal, was secretly whisked on an emotional pilgrimage to his daughter’s grave in Belgrade early on Tuesday morning, in a convoy of eight police vehicles, an ambulance and an armored Land Rover.
Related

Mladic Appeals Extradition on Health Grounds (May 31, 2011)
Times Topic: Ratko Mladic
Since his capture last week after almost 16 years on the run, Mr. Mladic had repeatedly pleaded for permission to visit the grave of his daughter, who apparently killed herself with her father’s military pistol. Mr. Mladic has always maintained that she was murdered.

Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s deputy war crimes prosecutor, confirmed that the prosecutors and court had granted Mr. Mladic’s request while his attorney is pressing an appeal of his transfer to the Hague to face genocide charges before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for his role as the Serbian military commander l during the 1990s Balkan conflict.

. A spokeswoman for the Belgrade court, Dusica Ristic, told The Associated Press that Mr. Mladic’s formal appeal had been received Tuesday. A tribunal of three judges will now have three days to consider the legal challenge. Government officials have predicted that Mr. Mladic could be transferred two to four days after thejudges reach their decision, depending on security arrangements.

Milos Saljic, Mr. Mladic’s lawyer, told reporters outside district court on Tuesday that the special tribunal could consider the appeal on Tuesday if it has arrived. He also said that a new medical report had been handed over the investigative judge on Mr. Mladic’s case listing severe health problems.

His daughter, Ana Mladic, was found dead in March 1994 in the Mladic family home in the Belgrade suburb of Banovo Hill. Her death, at the age of 23, was officially characterized as suicide. The current Serbian health minister, Zoran Stankovic, was a military pathologist at the time and conducted the autopsy. Dr. Stankovic, who visited Mr. Mladic last week in prison, said in an interview that at the time of the autopsy he had pressed for an investigation of the daughter’s death and called it “a mistake” that it never happened.

Mr. Mladic left in the convoy from the district court prison at about 6:20 a.m. to visit Ana Mladic’s high, black marble tomb, a tranquil shrine with an iron and wood park bench, a rose bed and fresh flowers laid by Mr. Mladic. The tomb is inscribed in Cyrillic with the name of Ana. It was long rumored that during his years as a fugitive, Mr. Mladic secretly visited the grave.

There are conflicting accounts about her death, a critical moment in Mr. Mladic’s life. There is speculation that it had an impact on him as a general when he was accused of overseeing the worst ethnic massacre in Europe since World War II — the July 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys at Srebrenica — and the bloody siege of Sarajevo.

According to the official account, Ana, a medical student, used her father’s treasured pistol, an award from his military academy, to shoot herself. Her death provoked theories that she had committed suicide after living in Russia and learning from independent news reports about atrocities in the Balkans. Some supporters of Mr. Mladic claimed that she was murdered by political and security forces who wanted to control Mr. Mladic.

Mr. Mladic’s visit to the cemetery, according to Mr. Vekaric, was highly emotional and he returned to the prison with doctors tending him.

Since being taken into custody, Mr. Mladic has also asked to visit his mother’s grave in Bosnia.

According to Mr. Saljic, the former commander’s memories keep retreating to the past and he finds it difficult to concentrate on one subject for more then ten minutes. The lawyer is appealing the transfer order on grounds that he is unfit mentally and physically to stand trial. On Tuesday, more Serbian dignitaries were scheduled to visit Mr. Mladic, including a general and a professor of international law and member of the Serbian Senate.