There were cries of emotion from Srebrenica survivors in the public gallery when former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic did not enter a plea to charges he called "monstrous" and "obnoxious".

By Geraldine Coughlan, The Hague

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After Presiding judge Alphons Orie read out a summary of the indictment on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, Mladic said he hadn't read the indictment and needed more than one month to study the document. Under ICTY rules, Mladic has been granted 30 days to consider how he will plead. The court re-scheduled the next hearing for 4 July. If Mladic does not enter a plea of guilty or not guilty within 30 days, the judges will enter a plea of not guilty, on his behalf.

Gravely ill
Ratko Mladic looked frail but alert as he saluted, coming into court. Dressed in grey jacket and baseball cap, he was helped to the dock by UN guards. He told the court he was a "gravely ill man" who needed more time to understand and prepare a "proper" defence, expressing dissatisfaction with the court-appointed lawyer, Aleksander Aleksic. He waived his right to have the indictment read out in full, saying he didn't want "a single letter or sentence" to be read out to him. Mladic may now choose his own lawyer for his trial or he may opt to conduct his own defence.

Mothers of Srebrenica
The Mothers of Srebrenica, the association of victims' relatives, demonstrated outside the Tribunal surrounded by the usual media circus complete with tents, satellite vans and portable toilets. Inside, the public gallery in Courtroom Number One of course, was packed for the initial appearance of Ratko Mladic, with journalists, lawyers, diplomats, academics, experts and victims' relatives. All with different perspectives, but still, gathered behind the glass partition, there was a collective feeling of being part of history.

JCE
With the court artist sketching furiously beside me, I listened to the judge read out the prosecution's accusation that Ratko Mladic was a "key member" of an "overarching" Joint Criminal Enterprise, responsible for "eliminating Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica" and taking UN personnel hostage, in 1995. The other key members named in the JCE are former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who is currently on trial at the ICTY.

Karadzic
While Mladic made waving gestures to the judges in Courtroom One - the trial of Karadzic, his former boss, continued in Courtroom Number Three.
Karadzic and Mladic were indicted together in 1995 as the chief architects of Serb atrocities throughout the Bosnian War. They both went on the run after their indictments. Karadzic was arrested on a Belgrade bus in 2008, while Mladic evaded attempts to arrest him for another three years until he was detained on 26 May.

Joint trial
Prosecutor Serge Brammertz has said that he would like to try the two men together, but he has not yet decided if he will apply to judges to combine the cases.
Putting Karadzic and Mladic on trial in the same courtroom would reunite the political and military leaders - but it also would further postpone Karadzic's case. Mladic will need months to prepare his defence before his trial can start.
Karadzic's trial has already been interrupted by delays since it began in October 2009.

Thousands of pages
Judges have repeatedly ordered adjournments to let him review thousands of pages of evidence disclosed to him by prosecutors. Karadzic is defending himself in court and frequently complains about prosecutors handing over evidence late.
But he has also bogged down his trial with lengthy cross-examination of prosecution witnesses. On Friday, he closely questioned prosecution political expert Patrick Treanor who said Karadzic "very actively used his power" during the Bosnian war.

A free man
Serb nationalists believe Mladic and Karadzic simply defended the nation and did no worse than Croat or Bosnian Muslim army commanders.
That's what Mladic told the court on Friday, after it went into private session to consider his concerns about his health: "I defended my people, my country.. now I am defending myself. I just have to say that I want to live to see that I am a free man."

Remaining fugitive
Judges have warned that Karadzic's trial could drag on until 2014 - two years longer than expected - if it does not speed up. The ICTY is due to wrap up proceedings and close its doors by 2014.
But some expect it may take alot longer to deal with the intricacies and complexities of the Mladic and Karadzic trials - as well as the trial of the Tribunal's last remaining fugitive, former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.