Mladic Arrives in The Hague

THE HAGUE — Ratko Mladic, the long-fugitive international war crimes suspect captured last week, arrived here Tuesday to face trial after judges in Serbia ruled against the appeal of his extradition.

The authorities in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, signed the papers to hand him over to the tribunal more swiftly than expected as soon as judges had rejected his appeal, which argued that he was physically and mentally unfit to stand trial before the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Within hours, he was bundled onto a waiting plane for the Netherlands.

Mr. Mladic’s transfer begins the final chapter in a nearly 16-year international effort to find him and bring him to account after he was accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, including the massacre of some 8,000 unarmed Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

For Serbia, the end of the hunt for Mr. Mladic bolsters its quest for European Union membership and reconciliation with the West. But it has also infuriated his dwindling number of supporters, mostly determined nationalists who consider him a hero who defended Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

His capture drew an outpouring of relief across Europe, where the Srebrenica massacre remained an unconscionable stain for which the main architects had not been punished.

However, the trial may be slowed by his health. Damaged by strokes and possibly heart attacks during his years on the run, Mr. Mladic is no longer the burly commander he was during the war, when he led the violent campaigns to drive tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from lands wanted for Serbs only. Milos Saljic, his lawyer, said that Mr. Mladic’s memory was uneven and that he found it difficult to concentrate on one subject for more than 10 minutes.

In the Netherlands, Mr. Mladic was whisked from the Rotterdam airport and delivered to the high-security Scheveningen prison compound near The Hague, where the United Nations has its own modern cellblocks. He would be informed of his rights and receive a medical checkup, a court official said.

Also held at Scheveningen is Radovan Karadzic, Mr. Mladic’s wartime political boss. Mr. Karadzic arrived three years ago and is standing trial on the same charges facing Mr. Mladic: violations of the laws of war, crimes against humanity and two counts of genocide.

In addition to Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic, there are also 35 other defendants from the Balkans at the prison, either on trial or appealing judgments in connection with wartime atrocities. Some are former associates of Mr. Mladic.

At the tribunal, prosecutors and lawyers convened in hasty meetings to complete plans for one of their last but most important cases.

In an interview in his office on Tuesday, the lead prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said that joining the trials of Mr. Mladic and Mr. Karadzic, while logical in principle, might not be workable. Lawyers are examining whether the two could stand together for the proceedings dealing with the massacre at Srebrenica, which judges here have defined as genocide in other cases.

“That decision has not been made,” he said. “Joining the cases would have been possible earlier, but we may have to go for a stand-alone trial.” He noted that the Karadzic trial began 18 months ago and had already heard 70 prosecution witnesses.

Regardless, it will be a new test case for the tribunal, which lost its most important defendant, Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, when he died in his cell in 2006 before a verdict was reached. His trial dragged on for almost four years, in part because his ill health forced the court to hold part-time sessions and often halt the proceedings. The prosecution was also criticized for being too ambitious for trying to cover three wars that spanned 10 years.

The arrival of Mr. Mladic is expected to extend the life of the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which was scheduled to close in 2014.

In Belgrade, the authorities insisted that they would continue the hunt for those who protected Mr. Mladic. But some Serbs continued to denounce his extradition.

Misa Vacic of the Serbian National Movement 1389, who helped organize protests against the arrest, said, “No Serb can have a fair trial at The Hague tribunal,” calling it “a symbolic tribunal for the political destruction of the Serbian people and the humiliated Serbian nation.”

 “His government will do whatever the E.U. and U.S.A. says,” he added.

Early Tuesday, Mr. Mladic was allowed to make an emotional pilgrimage to the grave of his daughter, Ana, in Belgrade. She was 23 when she was found dead in March 1994 in the Mladic family home in a Belgrade suburb. Mr. Mladic has always maintained that she was murdered, though evidence pointed to suicide, committed with her father’s prized military pistol.

Since his capture, Mr. Mladic had repeatedly pleaded for permission to visit her grave, as well as that of his mother, in Bosnia.

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

The trip was highly emotional, said Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s deputy war crimes prosecutor. Afterward, Mr. Mladic returned to the prison with doctors tending to him. In the afternoon, his wife, Bosilijka Mladic, his sister, Milica Avram, and his sister-in-law, Radinka Mladic, carried a large suitcase into the jail, ignoring reporters’ questions.