( CNN ) -- Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic refused to testify Tuesday at the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in the Netherlands and denounced the U.N.-backed court as `` satanic . '' Both men are on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia , or ICTY , for their role in the conflict that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia two decades ago . But Mladic said he does not recognize the court in The Hague and rejects it as satanic . `` It is not a court of justice , and it is trying us because we are Serbs and are trying to protect our people from you , '' he said . The former army chief , who was arrested in May 2011 after a decade on the run , is being tried separately from his former ally , Karadzic , but was called Tuesday as a defense witness in latter 's trial . Mladic agreed to answer only the first of six questions put to him -- on the positions held during his military career -- arguing that his testimony could harm his own case . Karadzic faces two counts of genocide , among other charges , one of which relates to the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995 . The second question put to Mladic by Karadzic 's defense was , `` Did you ever inform me , orally or in writing , that prisoners in Srebrenica would be , were being , or had been executed ? '' The next was , `` Did we have any agreement or understanding that the citizens of Sarajevo should be subjected to terror by shelling and sniping ? '' Mladic was also asked about the reasons for the shelling and sniping in Sarajevo , and what he had told Karadzic . More than 10,000 people , most of them civilians , died in the lengthy siege of Sarajevo , the Bosnian capital , by Bosnian Serb forces that pounded the city every day from higher ground . Mladic was also asked if he and Karadzic had any agreement `` to expel Muslims or Croats residing in Serb-controlled areas '' -- a question related to the second genocide charge faced by Karadzic . Karadzic : From psychiatrist to 'Butcher of Bosnia ' Elaborate disguise . The court proceedings are now in recess , the ICTY said . There was already an early break in proceedings after Mladic asked to be brought his dentures before he answered questions , said ICTY spokeswoman Magdalena Spalinska . Karadzic was captured in 2008 after more than 13 years of hiding in plain sight in Belgrade . He had adopted an elaborate disguise that included long hair and a full beard , and was practicing alternative medicine in the Serbian capital . His trial started in 2009 , and the prosecution rested its case in May 2012 . The defense case began in October of that year . Mladic is accused of genocide , crimes against humanity and war crimes in a trial that began in 2011 . Both men would face life in prison if convicted . The court can not impose the death penalty . Balkans conflicts . The ICTY is still prosecuting a number of cases of alleged war crimes committed during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s . The Srebrenica massacre became an emblem of the dissolution of Yugoslavia -- once a multiethnic state of Serbs , Croats , Muslims and others -- into six countries during a bloody and brutal conflict . Other defendants at the court include Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic , accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes ; and Vojislav Seselj , a Serb nationalist politician who faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes . The tribunal says `` the most significant number '' of its cases have dealt with alleged crimes by Serbians or Bosnian Serbs . But there have been convictions for crimes against Serbs by others , including Croats , Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians . CNN 's Khushbu Shah contributed to this report .
NEW : Ratko Mladic declines to answer questions on Srebrenica massacre , Sarajevo siege . Mladic says U.N.-backed court is `` satanic , '' argues testimony could harm his own case . He is called as a defense witness in the trial of ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic . Both men are being tried on charges of genocide and other war crimes during the 1990s .