General Ratko Mladic is probably the world's most wanted indicted war criminal. Dateline's producer cameraman David Brill filmed these exclusive scenes back in June 1992 at the height of the Balkans war.

GENERAL RATKO MLADIC, (Translation): It's very hard for me when my soldiers are wounded, even more so if they die.

For Bosnian Serbs, Mladic wasn't seen as the great villain of his age, more of a father figure protecting them in the battle against the Croats, Bosnian Muslims and the break-up of old Yugoslavia.

REPORTER: What happened to this little boy?

GENERAL RATKO MLADIC, (Translation):He was wounded in an explosion in Sarajevo, by an enemy grenade. As you can see, even kids of six aren't spared in Ustashe attacks.

Mladic was idolised and feared in equal measure. Not long after this film was taken the Serb General's Bosnian forces carried out the Srebrenica massacre. As many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys, held in what was supposed to be a UN safe haven, were ruthlessly executed. Mladic accused of organising that 1995 massacre was later indicted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal on charges of genocide.

GENERAL RATKO MLADIC, (Translation): The war was initiated by the Croat-Muslim side. It was imposed on the Serbs. From the start, the Serbs merely defended their homes, their lives and their children. You saw that wounded boy of six. I've lost many friends in this war. And close relatives. My only consolation is that they died for a just cause.

Along with the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who is also still on the run, Ratko Mladic came to symbolise the brutality of that period in the Balkans.
After the conflict ended, Mladic lived life relatively openly despite his indictment as a war criminal. Until five years ago, he'd been protected by Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and was reportedly seen at football matches and eating out.
But after Milosevic's arrest Mladic went underground, supported it's said, by factions within the Serbian army.
Despite numerous NATO-led raids to hunt him down, he remains free - to many Serbian nationalists a favourite son, a national hero. But of late, the tide's been turning against Mladic.
Europe has given Serbia an ultimatum - hand him over for trial or forget about ever joining the EU and the benefits that would flow from that.
The United States, on the other hand, has reportedly offered money, US$5 million to his family and bodyguards if he turns himself in. At the end of last week rumours had Mladic in negotiations with the Serb Government or that he had been arrested. But, so far, there is still no sign of the elusive, indicted war criminal.

DIPLOMAT: I hope, this time, we will do that. In spite, I must tell you, I do not know where General Mladic is.