Rachael Brown reported this story on Thursday, May 17, 2012 08:18:00

TONY EASTLEY: For a 70 year old facing the rest of his life in prison the former Bosnian-Serb army chief Ratko Mladic appeared unrepentant, even truculent, as his trial got underway in The Hague overnight.



The charges of crimes against humanity and genocide stemming from the Bosnian War were laid after Mladic was arrested in May last year after 16 years on the run.



Europe correspondent Rachael Brown:



(Sound of a siren)



RACHAEL BROWN: Today in The Hague Ratko Mladic - the so-called "Butcher of Bosnia" - arrived amid tight security.



The prosecutor, Dermot Groome, outlined the case against him.



DERMOT GROOME: Two decades ago this past month Bosnian Serb leaders commenced an attack on their fellow citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina - civilians who were targeted for no other reason than they were an ethnicity other than Serb. In some locations this attack rose to the level of genocide.



RACHAEL BROWN: The prosecution described in intricate detail the ethnic cleansing allegedly ordered by this former army commander.



DERMOT GROOME: Soldiers went from house to house killing every man they could find. They found about 20. All of them but one was shot in the forehead.



RACHAEL BROWN: Satko Mujagic was held prisoner in the Omarska detention camp in Bosnia's north-west. He says it was therapeutic seeing Ratko Mladic in the dock.



SATKO MUJAGIC: To see him being brought to justice, to see the man who destroyed my life actually and many of lives of people I knew, many of the survivors who are dealing with traumas still not being capable and able to forget and to wash this out of their heads.



RACHAEL BROWN: Outside the war crimes tribunal there was a demonstration by wives and mothers of some of the 8,000 men and boys killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.



(Sound of woman speaking)



"Why did we have to wait so long for him to be arrested?" says this mother. "I don't want him to die. I wish him to suffer."



Inside the court one mother whispered "vulture" as the trial began.



But some tell a different story of the war - that the massacres didn't happen and General Mladic is a hero.



Svetozar Guzina was a battalion commander in the frontline at Sarajevo.



SVETOZAR GUZINA (translated): I'm sorry my General is in The Hague. It's a mistake. He is an honourable General who served the Serbian people.



RACHAEL BROWN: Ratko Mladic describes the accusations as "monstrous" and has not entered a plea.



He's accused of working in tandem with his political master Radovan Karadzic who's been on trial in The Hague since 2009.



This is Rachael Brown in London reporting for AM.