EU to Take Over Bosnia Peacekeeping
By AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON
December 29, 2002, 11:54 AM EST
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- For many here, the United Nations flag that has flown over Bosnia for a decade will forever be stained with the blood of 8,000 Muslims killed in Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
The light-blue U.N. flag comes down for the final time Dec. 31, to be replaced by the European Union's dark blue banner. Those who remember Srebrenica, when Serbs massacred Muslim men and boys while U.N. peacekeepers stood by, have no fondness for it.
"Let them go, and show them the door," said Sabra Kulenovic, a 53-year old survivor of the July 1995 slaughter. Zineta Mujic, who lost her 25-year old son and 13 other family members at Srebrenica, described the U.N. tenure in Bosnia as "a catastrophe."
But others have kinder memories as the United Nations leaves what has been one of its most difficult and painful peacekeeping missions with a postwar success. It overhauled police and border forces in efforts to steer the country toward normality.
And though an internationally appointed administrator still oversees Bosnia and NATO-led peacekeepers remain as the ultimate deterrent, many credit the United Nations with making Bosnia a safer place.
"God knows what will happen when they leave," said Emira Hadzic, 41, a Muslim from Mostar, a city taut with ethnic tensions after the end of the conflict. "For years after the war they provided some kind of security."
The European Union force will also train and monitor local police forces in Bosnia, which is still struggling to rebuild after years of divisive ethnic conflict.
Bosnian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amer Kapetanovic blames the United Nations for allowing Srebrenica -- "one of the worst massacres in recent history" -- to happen. At the same time, he credits the United Nations for "postwar success in establishing a border police and creating a professional and good police force here."
U.N. peacekeepers arrived in February 1992 to try and keep the lid on ethnic tensions, but were ill-prepared for what was to erupt just two months later -- the start of Europe's worst post-World War II conflict.
They were outmanned and outgunned, with orders but not the means to keep a nonexistent peace. The initial contingent of 100 U.N. military observers was powerless in what soon turned into a war pitting Serbs opposed to Bosnia's independence from Yugoslavia against Muslims and Croats backing it.
The U.N. peacekeeping force came to number 21,000, backed by armor and NATO warplanes. But more personnel and equipment flowing into Bosnia didn't help. Timid U.N. functionaries overseeing the peacekeepers caved instead of trying to secure respect for the international contingent through force.
Soon, U.N. commanders were begging local warlords to let their shipments of food pass through. The U.N. airlift operation carrying supplies for Serb-besieged Sarajevo was so unreliable that it was branded "Maybe Airlines."
Hands tied by lack of resolve at the top, the peacekeepers were reduced to "monitoring" how civilian targets were attacked, counting shells falling on cities and villages and begging all warring parties to stop.
"Their mandate was never very clear and the way it was written was confusing so that, as it was, it could never have provided success," said James Lyon, of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
As U.N. peacekeepers watched, genocide swept away entire groups of Bosnians between 1992 and the end of 1995. The worst example was Srebrenica, a civilian enclave in the east of the country that the United Nations declared safe.
Overrun by Bosnian Serb soldiers, Srebrenica was left to its fate by Dutch peacekeepers. Accepting Serb promises that no harm would be done, they closed the gates of their compound, allowing the Serbs to expel or kill the entire Muslim population.
The Netherlands government resigned in April after an independent Dutch report blamed the Dutch peacekeepers for Srebrenica.
On a 1999 visit, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan apologized for the tragedy and said it "will haunt our history forever." He called the United Nations' mission in Bosnia "one of the most difficult and painful in our history."
Still, the United Nations' postwar performance has been generally successful, particularly efforts to reform Bosnia's police, dismiss officials with a criminal wartime past and tighten border controls.
Citizens now report that policemen address them with a smile and treat them with respect.
Ismet Sejfija, a political science professor from the northern city of Tuzla, spoke with wonder of his encounter with border police upon returning from a trip to Eastern Europe.
"When I came back, the first smile I saw along the road was on the Bosnian border," said Sejfija, 43. "I'm really pleasantly surprised. A tip of my hat to the U.N. for that."
Still, with Bosnia still a lawless and violent place, many warn the European Union not to get complacent.
"The worst thing is that they are starting their mission based on the assumption that the ... mission has been completed," said Lyon, with the International Crisis Group.
"If they start from that point, then their mission will be a failure from the beginning."
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