Mladic living freely, video footage shows

London: One of the most notorious Serbian war criminals is living freely, it was claimed on Thursday after video footage emerged showed him attending parties and family get-togethers.

Ratko Mladic, 67, who has been on the run from the UN since 1995, faces genocide charges relating to the largest single mass murder in Europe since the Second World War.

The former army chief has been indicted in the killings of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims near Srebrenica in July 1995.

But fresh questions were raised on Thursday night about Serbia's commitment to bring him to justice as video footage was aired on Bosnian television showing him living an apparently normal life.

They show the stocky former general surrounded by people at a restaurant, dancing at a wedding and playing with his baby granddaughter. Mladic is also shown playing table tennis at Serbian military barracks. It has long been rumoured that he spent time at a military base.

The controversy could undermine's Serbia's efforts to be accepted into the European Union.

Most of the union's 27 members have suggested they would vote in favour of the move, after the moderate Belgrade government arrested the former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic and sent him to The Hague.

Rasim Ljajic, the country's chief coordinator with the UN tribunal in The Hague, said the leak of the footage intended "to minimise positive assessment about Serbia's co-operation".

He said "not a single shot is less than eight years old". "I'm afraid that the purpose of releasing the footage was to prevent a Dutch change of heart as regards visa liberalisation, and to put us in the dock once again."

Ljajic said the videos were "seized in Mladic's house in December 2008 and handed to The Hague tribunal in March."