APPEAL OF THE CLUB OF GENERALS AND ADMIRALS OF SERBIA

Activities - Appeals

The Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia has reliable information that General Ratko Mladic has been in a very bad health condition for a long time. It is more worrying that the disease has been getting worse every day lately, and that the patient is in the detention facility where there are no appropriate conditions for diagnosing and treatment of his health condition.

We are acquainted that General Mladic's defence attorneys submitted a request to The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague for the transfer of the patient to a hospital, due to his severe condition, in order to get adequate therapy and appropriate medical care. Serbian doctors, who were aware of Mladic's health, were agreed with this request.

We are concerned that, in spite of his severe condition, the numerous appeals of the defence team and the family for his hospitalization have not been taken into account, that obvious health complications are being ignored and that his fundamental human rights in health care are endangered (right to adequate treatment, right to information about the health condition, treatment and upcoming interventions).

Neither the defence team is provided with regular official reports and official medical documentation on his health, nor his medical team is provided with weekly health information. The condition is life-threatening, and his life is at stake. That is what concerns the most, because the natural, international law and human dignity are all neglected.

Moreover, the right to a fair and just trial has also been put at risk by this attitude of The Mechanism, due to Mladic's limited abilities for preparation and participation in further trial.

We publicly appeal to The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague to respect one of the fundamental human rights - the right to medical treatment, and for General Mladic to be urgently transferred to an appropriate medical institution for specialist diagnosis of the condition and adequate treatment.

We appeal that official medical documentation be regularly submitted to the defence team and weekly information on the health condition to his medical team, in accordance with the decision of the Appeals Chamber.

We appeal to the appropriate institutions of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the authorities of the Republic of Serbia, primarily the Ministry of Justice, to decisively demand undertaking of the proposed measures in order to protect the life and fundamental human rights of General Mladic.

We demand that general Ratko Mladic be immediately transferred to a hospital in order to urgently get appropriate treatment measures.

At the meeting of the Executive Board of the Club, the decision was made to make this appeal public.

In Belgrade, June 15th 2020.     
                                
PRESIDENT OF THE EB
Major General Dr Luka Kastratović