He told Judge Alphonse Orie that he needed more than one month to study "disgusting" and "monstrous" lies against him, referring to 11 counts of his indictment. including genocide and other war crimes.
During his first appearance in the tribunal, after he managed to evade justice for 16 years, Mladic, listened to what the judge way saying to him with a haughty and arrogant bearing which he used to show also in TV reports while he had been at the helm of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After he declined to enter the plea today, a new hearing was scheduled for 4 July. If he declines to enter a plea then, it will be regarded that Mladic pleads not guilty.
He was captured in a village in Serbia on 26 May after he had been on the run for 16 years. Mladic, who was extradited from Serbia to The Hague on Tuesday, is charged with 11 counts for genocide, persecutions, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, terror, unlawful attacks, taking of hostages during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The most gravest crimes for which he is held responsible is the 43-month siege of the capital of Sarajevo and the atrocities in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serbs killed 8,000 Muslims after they raided that eastern enclave in July 1995.
During today's arrival of judges and court staff in the courtroom, Mladic saluted them in a military manner with his forage cap which had to remove later.
Asked about any objections to conditions of his detention in the Scheveningen custody, Mladic said that he would like to say now when reporters from all around the world were present in the courtroom that he defended his people.
"I defended my people and my country... I did not kill Muslims or Croats because they were Muslims or Croats. Neither do I kill now in Libya," this 69-year-old indictee said.
Judge Orie interrupted him saying that the presence of reporters was irrelevant and that his question referred to conditions of his detention in the ICTY custody.
Mladic said that his treatment in custody was humane and dignified.
He went on to say that he did not know lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic, counsel assigned to him by the ICTY, and that he wanted to have "a decent defence".
A part of today's session was held behind the closed doors when Mladic's health condition was being discussed.
Representatives of mothers whose children and husbands were killed in eastern Bosnia, were attending today's hearing from the courtroom gallery.
The disdainful conduct which he showed in his claim "whole world knows who I am. I am General Ratko Mladic" provoked outrage among them.
"He has shown no remorse. He is laughing at victims," said Munira Subasic, one of those mothers.