DARKO MLADIĆ: THE HAGUE KEEPS IGNORING GENERAL MLADIĆ'S SERIOUS HEALTH CONDITION

BELGRADE, MAY 26 /SRNA/ – The health condition of General Ratko Mladić remains very serious - he is immobile, unable to speak, prison conditions are hindering his recovery, while the Hague Mechanism continues to ignore this and refuses to allow him access to adequate medical treatment, the general's son, Darko Mladić, told SRNA.

He stated that The Hague justifies this refusal with the claim "that it is not possible to reliably predict how much longer General Mladić might live". According to him, an envoy of Serbia’s Ministry for Human and Minority Rights is scheduled to visit the general in detention unit today and is expected to prepare an appropriate report. "The Ministry of Human Rights deals precisely with these issues, and the visit will certainly be useful in terms of gaining insight into the actual situation," Darko Mladić said. Darko Mladić emphasized that one example of The Hague merely simulating assistance to his father is the fact that, although Ratko Mladić requires a Serbian-speaking speech therapist to regain his speech following a stroke, he was assigned a Dutch therapist. "How a Dutch speech therapist is supposed to work with Ratko, who speaks only Serbian, is a mystery to me. That is another example where they pretend to be providing help, but in reality it is not genuine assistance," Darko Mladić said. He stressed that occasional family visits alone are not sufficient. Darko Mladić pointed out that no Hague convict has previously been in such a condition - bedridden and unable to communicate. According to Darko, President of the Hague Mechanism, Graciela Gatti Santana, had released Serbian convicts suffering from cancer only when it had become clear that they would die soon afterward. He said this raises the question of whether they had effectively been sentenced to death, arguing that if they had been released earlier, they could have received adequate treatment and perhaps had their lives prolonged. "Fortunately, Ratko does not have cancer, but the combination of his illnesses and immobility means he could die tomorrow. The man is bedridden, unable to communicate, confined, and the conditions make it harder for him to recover, but they ignore all of that," Darko Mladić said. He added that letters sent to UN commissions for human rights protection, particularly prisoners' rights, in which the family and lawyers requested protection of his rights under UN conventions, had been received, but it remains unclear when any response will be issued. General Mladić suffered another stroke on April 10, and a further one on May 2, after which his health condition deteriorated further due to serious neurological, cardiovascular, and kidney problems. Since 2024, he has been housed in the detention hospital in The Hague. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague has repeatedly rejected requests for General Mladić to be granted temporary release for medical treatment in Serbia.