Mladic appears in UN war crimes court

THE HAGUE - Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic appeared in the U.N. war crimes court on Monday, where he is scheduled to enter a plea against genocide charges during the Bosnian war.

Belgrade-based lawyer Milos Saljic had earlier said 69-year-old Mladic, a career soldier, would not attend his second plea hearing on Monday in order to press his demand for the appointment of his own defense lawyers.

Arrested in May and extradited to The Hague after 16 years on the run, Mladic defiantly rejected war crimes charges against him as "obnoxious" and "monstrous" when he was formally charged at the Yugoslavia war crimes court last month.