Darko Mladić, the son of General Ratko Mladić, former commander of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, stated today that his father is in a very serious health condition, and that this has been confirmed to him by health professionals at the Hague Tribunal.
“I visited my father a month ago. The doctors then told me that they consider him an incurable patient and that he has only a few months or even weeks left to live. Our doctors pointed to this fact a year ago, when my father became bedridden. With this statement, the Dutch doctors have, in a way, admitted that even if there was the best will of the doctors, adequate medical assistance could not be provided to my father in prison conditions,” Mladić told “Politika”.
He added that doctors at the Tribunal have repeatedly asked Ratko Mladić to declare that he does not wish to be resuscitated in case his health condition requires it, and he has categorically refused every time they asked him this question.
“They have been asking him this question since last September, citing the rules of the Dutch healthcare system. The last time they asked him was recently, when my mother visited him. He refused it in front of her too. And we, as a family, oppose such a possibility. Firstly, my father is not a Dutch citizen, and secondly, there is the Hippocratic Oath, according to which doctors are obliged to do everything possible to help and save the patient. We believe that asking such a question is a kind of pressure on my father,” said Darko Mladić.
He reminded that Ratko Mladić’s legal team has so far submitted three requests for Mladić to be released on parole or to serve the remainder of his life sentence, to which he was sentenced by the Hague Tribunal, in Serbia, but this has been rejected.
“A few days ago, we officially requested answers from the prison health service to some questions that I cannot discuss at this moment. Depending on the answers we receive through an extraordinary report on his health condition, we will decide whether to submit a new request and on what grounds,” Mladić said.
He added that even if he is released on parole and allowed to serve his sentence in Serbia, his father will spend the rest of his life in a hospital.
“Let them at least let him die at home,” Mladić urged.
According to him, Ratko Mladić is a bedridden patient with serious decubitus wounds that cannot be treated adequately given his overall poor health condition.
“He can no longer even sit in a wheelchair for long periods, and sometimes he is even unable to get out of bed to be moved to the room where video calls are made, through which we communicate with him twice a week. What has not been widely discussed and is not known is that last year, the prison hospital authorities changed the rules for providing patient medical documentation, which has made it difficult for us to access it,” said Darko Mladić.
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Source: Telegraf, Photo: EPA-EFE