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Darko Mladic makes claim as his father fights extradition from Serbia to face UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague Ratko Mladic denies ordering the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, his son has said. “Whatever was done in Srebrenica, he has nothing to do with it. His orders were to evacuate the wounded, the women and the children and then the fighters,” Darko Mladic said as his father fought extradition from Serbia to face the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. “Whatever was done behind his back, he has nothing to do with that.” The family intends to demand on Mondaythat a Serbian court orders an independent medical checkup to counter Friday’s decision that Mladic is fit to stand trial . “His basic human rights are being violated,” his son said. Prosecutors have dismissed such moves as a delaying tactic. Ratko Mladic’s lawyer, Milos Saljic, said: “It is impossible to talk to him sensibly about usual things, to talk about his defense case … He is really in bad shape psychologically.” The alleged war criminal, who has previously suffered at least two minor strokes, also said he wanted to be visit the grave of his daughter, who killed herself in 1994. “He says if he can’t go there, he wants his daughter’s coffin brought in here,” Saljic added. “His condition is alarming.” Meanwhile, Serbian authorities stepped up security ahead of an ultra-nationalist rally scheduled to take place in the capital, Belgrade, later on Sunday. Previous rallies have resulted in violent clashes between the police and rightwing extremists. Earlier, it emerged that officials involved in Mladic’s capture had faced a tirade of abuse when he was brought to court. Mladic accused them of “working for the CIA”, and later told one prominent official he could have had him killed on two occasions. Mladic, who has refused to recognise the authority of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, denied being a killer, adding that all Serbs bore a shared guilt for voting for President Slobodan Milosevic, the architect of the Balkan wars. Mladic’s behaviour since being brought to court in Belgrade was disclosed in the most detailed account yet of the state of mind of the man charged with orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. It came as a source close to Serbia’s intelligence service, the BIA – or Security Information Agency – said Mladic had been living openly for several years, although “not continuously”, in the village of Lazarevo, where he was found. A BIA team observing the house of his cousin Branko Mladic, where Ratko Mladic was found – one of two addresses he had been using in the area – had watched him going about “everyday activities”, including attending village celebrations. “Personally speaking, I think some officials knew where he was living,” the source said. “It was peculiar, too, that when the house was raided there were no personal possessions there.” Bruno Vekaric, a deputy prosecutor at the war crimes prosecutor’s office, who has met Mladic twice since his arrest, described Mladic’s behaviour: “He was really angry at first. He recognised me from television and said: ‘You’re in the CIA!’ He knew my name and asked me: ‘Are you a Serb?’ You know, because it is not a common Serbian name. “I told him my father was from Dubrovnik [in Croatia]. He felt like a great Serb and was angry at the way he was being treated on that first day.” Vekaric added that examination of Mladic by court-appointed medical experts confirmed he had suffered at least two minor strokes, perhaps more, but was coherent and fit to stand trial. That was confirmed by Mladic’s wife, Bosiljka, speaking after visiting him, who said he had suffered a stroke in 2008. “He was stubborn and resistant. He did not want to co-operate with the judge at all on the first day,” Vekaric said. “He spoke about his career. And what was interesting, on that first day, was that he said to me: ‘Bruno, I am not a killer. But the people who killed, they should be held responsible.’” Vekaric gave his account in his court office above the cells where Mladic is being held in a block on his own, watched 24 hours a day by two guards through an open door. He said: “He’s always observed, but he’s told the guards: ‘You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to commit suicide.’” Mladic emerges as a man who has a desperate need to explain himself. “He needs to speak. To communicate,” said Vekaric. “He was alone for so long, he needs to speak.” Although they had never met before, Mladic made clear to Vekaric that he had followed his statements over the years on television. “The first day, he was very tired,” Vekaric said. “He was stressed and aggressive. The second time I saw him in court, he apologised to me for his outburst.” What has been visible since then is a more familiar Mladic, arrogant and demanding, insisting not only on his own innocence but on the shared guilt of all of the Serbian people. “He said: ‘You elected [Slobodan] Milosevic, not me. You are all guilty, not me.’” During his time in court, speaking to officials involved in proceedings to extradite him to The Hague for trial, some details have emerged of how Mladic has lived. He has had no mobile phone, not trusting mobiles or the internet. The television channels he watched were local Serbian ones, and he described cable television as “fed by the CIA”. Mladic also complained about how his family has been treated during the long manhunt. “He asked for his pension [cut off in 2004] to be reinstated. He said: ‘You destroyed everything. Because of you my daughter-in-law lost her job. They destroyed the financial connections of my son, Darko’” Vekaric said. He added that as well as asking for strawberries and a television, which has been delivered to his cell, Mladic had also asked if he could see his grandchildren. Vekaric said Mladic had suffered increasingly straitened circumstances since 2006, when he narrowly evaded arrest in the village of Ljuba. This was as a result of the targeting of those in his support network, including financiers, and increased supervision of family members, who had been followed closely by the BIA. “He only had relatives who could look after him,” said a source familiar with the BIA operation. “None of his close family visited him in Lazarevo while the house was being observed. They were being watched too closely.” Vekaric said: “When you see him, you see a man who has not looked after himself well in the last three to four years. He looks like someone who has not had proper medical attention in a long time.” Ratko Mladic Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina Europe War crimes James Meikle Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk