Mladic protected by Serbian military

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Ratko Mladic, wanted for genocide, has been protected by Serbian military and intelligence officials for years, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Considered the military leader who carried out the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s that killed 15,000 people and accused of organizing the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, Mladic is thought of as a hero by Serbian nationalists, the newspaper said. Sources said Mladic has been harbored at various military bases since the Balkans war ended.

With Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic now captured and extradited to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, international pressure is building on Serbia to end its protection of Mladic and send him, too, to face charges of genocide. But loyalty to him runs deep in Serbia's military and unlike Karadzic, he prefers to keep a low profile and is skilled at hiding, sources said.

A leaked 2006 Serbian military intelligence report said Mladic had been hidden in army facilities in Bosnia and Serbia until 2002 when Serbia agreed to cooperate with The Hague. After that, he disappeared, the newspaper said.