Photo Gallery Ratko Mladic Evades Capture
An image taken from a video screened on Bosnian television in June 2009: It shows Ratko Mladic, the Serb army leader who has been indicted for war crimes during the Bosnian war, with his wife and his granddaughter, who was born in 2001. This is from one of 215 video tapes and CDs seized in a single raid on a Mladic family apartment in December 2008.
This Bosnian television footage shows Mladic (center) apparently enjoying himself during a party.
Unlike former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic (left), shown here in video footage taken some time before his arrest in July 2008 in Belgrade, Mladic never felt the need to disguise his identity.
Does this look like a man on the run? Mladic (2nd from right) dancing at his son's wedding party in one of the confiscated video tapes. Mladic stands accused of crimes against humanity for the slaughter of thousands of Muslims during the Bosnian War. The stocky former general was once hailed as a hero. Today most Serbs would rather see him in the dock alongside Karadzic and all the others.
Karadzic is on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Serbian government and military officials have had numerous chances to seize Mladic as well.
Refugees from the fallen UN "safe haven" of Srebrenica, where an estimated 8,000 Bosnian men and boys aged between 12 and 77 were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic in July 1995.
An archive photo of Mladic (2nd from the right) saluting Serb troops. Patriotic sentiment about the alleged Serb war hero was just one of the reasons why Mladic's arrest was prevented for years. There were also real national interests for ensuring he wasn't found. Many in Serbia were extremely worried that Mladic would confirm at trial how deeply the government in Belgrade was involved in the chaos of the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo.
A 1993 photo showing Mladic with Karadzic. Just like Karadzic, Mladic often sought refuge in one of the anonymous tower blocks of New Belgrade. But it was only one of many hideouts. The ex-general has friends in high places -- fellow officers, loyal politicians, and businessmen from the upper classes of Belgrade society have all protected the now 67-year-old.
