Wanted Bosnian Serb military chief alive: UN prosecutor

Fugitive Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is believed to be still alive despite efforts by his family to have him declared dead, UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz said Friday.

-We are working on the assumption that he is still alive- the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) told reporters here after briefing the UN Security Council on the activities of his office.

-It it is our very strong belief he is still hiding in the region- Brammertz said, insisting that there was no alternative to his eventual arrest.

But he refused to give further details so as not to compromise efforts by Serbian security to locate and nab the wanted wartime military chief.

Mladic faces genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity charges before the ICTY in The Hague, particularly relating to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

He is specifically accused of masterminding the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead and the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

His family has requested legal authorities to declare him dead, saying there was no proof since 2003 that he was alive.

-The family has decided to do this as there has been not a single shred of evidence since February 2003 that Mladic is alive- Beta news agency quoted the family lawyer, Milos Saljic, as saying this week.

Under Serbian law, people who are over 70 years old and have not been heard of for more than five years

"The family has decided to do this as there has been not a single shred of evidence since February 2003 that Mladic is alive"

Milos Saljic

But as Mladic would now be 68, the family would have to prove that his health condition made it probable that he was no longer alive, he added.

His family claims Mladic was last seen seven years ago while Serbian authorities say they were aware of the general's movements in Serbia up until three years ago.

Although it is widely believed that Mladic is hiding in Serbia, protected by a handful of hardcore supporters, he was last seen in public at a football match in 2000.

In the past years, Serbian authorities have tried to break a network of his aides, especially among the military, whose assistance he had allegedly used for hiding in remote army barracks.