Twenty years after the opening shots of the Bosnian War, former Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic has gone on trial at a UN tribunal on 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ailing 70-year-old Mladic's appearance at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal marks the end of a long wait for justice to survivors of the 1992-95 war that left some 100,000 people dead.

Mladic gave a thumbs-up and clapped to supporters in the court's public gallery as the trial got under way Wednesday.

Munira Subasic, who lost 22 family members in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, was among a group of relatives of war dead heading into the courtroom to face Mladic.

The 65-year-old said she wanted to look him in the eye "and ask him if he will repent for what he did."