Mladic complains of ill health at war crimes court

Former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic complained Thursday about his health, courtroom cameras and what he called the medias lies about him during an hour-long pre-trial hearing at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.In a feisty appearance before the United Nations court, the 69-year-old former general told Presiding Judge Alphons Orie he was in pain caused by a kidney stone and asked for Serbian doctors to examine him.The hearing was called to monitor progress toward Mladics trial on charges including genocide, extermination and murder for allegedly masterminding the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war, but Mladic seized on the opportunity to publicly air a string of grievances.Mladic told the court he was in strong, bad pain because of the kidney stone moving. His health problems appeared to be behind an hour-long delay to the start of the hearing, for which Mladic apologized.The tribunal will be closely monitoring Mladics health while he is in its detention unit in The Hague. His family says he has had two strokes in recent years. And one of his lawyers, Milos Saljic, said in August that Mladic underwent surgery for a hernia.In a major setback to the court and victims of the bloody conflicts that tore through the Balkans in the 1990s, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell in 2006, shortly before his long-running trial was due to end.Mladic appeared to issue a veiled warning Thursday that he could suffer the same fate, when he told Orie, If you put any pressure on me, it will not end well.