IN THE shadow of a mountain, surrounded by thick, snow- covered forest and miles from the nearest town, stands a modest three-storey house called the Villa Javor. It is so modest that no one even bothered to paint the outside.

But enter the adjoining garage and pass through the door at the back and you enter a different world: a sophisticated, underground military complex stretching under the mountain.

Built during communist times near the town of Han Pijesak, as a last redoubt for Tito’s military, this underground bunker is believed to have been used until recently by one of Europe’s most wanted men — General Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander.

But now, using powers under the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the Bosnian War, its foot-thick solid iron doors have been thrown open by the British officer in charge of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, Major-General David Leakey.

“From a military standpoint it’s very impressive. It’s nuclear proof. It has a very sophisticated air-decontamination system so it could survive under chemical attack,” Major-General Leakey said. “It has huge fuel tanks, big powerful generators. People could live here more or less indefinitely.

“This bunker has been used by the former Bosnian Serb commander, Ratko Mladic. We know that. This bunker has been under observation. We’re now going to close it so he can’t use it again.”

The bunker has its own underground fresh water supply, communications rooms, sleeping accommodation, bathrooms and showers. Paintings hang from the walls. At the end of one corridor is the commander’s suite of rooms including a double bed, wardrobe and ensuite bathroom.

Western diplomats say that in July, General Mladic, who has been charged with genocide by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague and has been on the run for the past eight years, spent time at this bunker as a guest of the Bosnian Serb military.

A raid on the complex by Nato troops failed to find General Mladic who, it is believed, was once again spirited away by bodyguards.

During the Bosnian War in the early 1990s this and other nearby facilities served as the headquarters of the Bosnian Serb Army. I asked the current commander of the bunker, Captain Milomir Deric, if General Mladic had spent time there. Fixing me with icy blue eyes, he pursed his lips, and gave me a terse: “No, never.”

He added: “I can tell you no war criminal has ever used these facilities. The Bosnian Serb Army does not support war criminals.” This is not the only underground military bunker in Bosnia. There are thought to be at least 20, built as part of Tito’s plan to turn Bosnia into the military centre of the former Yugoslavia.

Major-General Leakey said: “We’re taking a look at all these underground facilities, ammunition storage sites, underground aircraft facilities, underground command and control facilities, underground hospitals.

“Many are an expense which this country can just afford and doesn’t need.”

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