List of Abbreviations
APC Armoured Personnel Carrier
BH Command UNPROFOR Headquarters in Bosnia-Herzegovina
BiH Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina
COR Commission for Refugees
ECMM Monitors under the auspices of the European Commission. Multi-national teams who wore white uniforms and were unarmed.
HDZ Croatian Democratic Union; Bosnian Croat Ruling Party
HVO Croat Defence Council; Bosnian Croat Army
PTT Post and Telecommunications Office. The UNPROFOR Headquarters in Sarajevo and in Srebrenica
RQMS Regimental Queartermaster Seargent
SDA Party for Democratic Action; Bosnian Muslim Ruling Party
SDS Serb Democratic Party; Serb Ruling Party
UN United Nations
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNPROFOR United Nations Protection Force
WHO World Health Organisation
WFP World Food Programme
Foreword
By Jamie McGoldrick
The release of a second edition of this book is extremely timely. We are given a personal insight into the shaping of the international response and assistance culture when modern humanitarianism was in its infancy. This insight underscores the increasing threats and impediments to humanitarian action today, both ideological and overwhelmingly political. These are seen in shrinking operating space, given counter terrorism legislation that effectively criminalises humanitarian action, and insufficient funding, based more than ever on a geo-political calculus.
In this revised version, Larry’s trademark dictum shines through brightly as “to thine own self be true.” He lays bare the trials and tribulations during the early years of the Balkans conflict in this personal account of perseverance, humility, and genuine human empathy in one of contemporary history’s darkest times.
Larry shepherds the reader through the humanitarian nightmare that had befallen the people of the Balkans in the early 1990s through a hands-on account, which grows darker with each chapter. He writes that he “felt close to the refugees but not close enough to really understand.” But what he lacked in understanding he made up for in guile, bravery, and resilience as he battled a conveyor belt of incidents and challenges that tested his resolve as a front-line humanitarian worker.
This is an emotional journey without maps, peppered with belligerent and uncaring people in power, and others showing extraordinary kindness as they tried to help thousands of civilians caught up in the horror and chaos of the conflict.
The wars in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Somalia in the 1990s, changed forever the role of future international humanitarian response. As such, the earlier missionary zeal has now been replaced by a more pragmatic and business-like approach. This book takes us back and captures a period of humanitarian response and helps chart a necessary course through the dominant forces of all things politics ruling our work. The role and interference by States started in earnest during this period. Politicization of aid and exploitation of humanitarian agencies often lead to unprincipled and unprofessional behaviour and heightened the need for reform. Humanitarian principles were stretched with the blurring of lines at the field level. Increasingly, since those early days, it has become the norm for military actors to operate alongside humanitarians, private contractors, political actors, and member states working in the deep field.
Sadly, as a result, conflict resolution and mediation are interwoven in the work of humanitarian response. The substance of humanitarian work increasingly replaces political discourse resulting in inaction or humanitarian action being based solely on political or military imperatives.
As humanitarians, this book should be a reminder to our own conscience. The book reconfirms the criticality of humanitarian principles in action and being close to the people in need. Larry has taken the hard lessons and loss of innocence from his time in the Balkans and set out to improve the humanitarian system. The growth and progress at the International Institute of Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University, and the thousands of graduates and trained humanitarians who have passed through its doors, are a testament to Larry’s mission.
I count myself very fortunate to have worked with him at close quarters and personally benefited from his sage advice and front-line experiences.
One
The Call
I returned to the UK from my tour with Somali refugees, minus my Parker pen which I had had for more than ten years, my UN blue anorak which I had had for five years, and twenty kilos in weight. The pen and anorak were “liberated” by my driver at a halt for a wee on my way to Nairobi airport. The kilos were lost as the result of bugs picked up in “the bush.”
My first two weeks at home were dictated by a simple time and distance calculation. At least twice an hour I needed to find a toilet. A time and motions study. Fortunately, the local military medical centre near my home had on its staff a graduate of the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, he cured my loo dependency and I was then ready to move.
The situation in ex-Yugoslavia was the lead story in all the newspapers. UNHCR was the leading aid agency. Jose Maria Mendiluce was the Special Envoy. He and I had worked together in Geneva. A small, broad, urbane, and elegant Spaniard, he is a brilliant linguist with an open charm which hides experience gained as a veteran of tough tours in South America and Kurdistan.
In just over a year, he had seen a lot of history in its making. Slovenia had fought briefly and successfully for its independence, Croatia and Serbia had gone to war. The newly independent, UN-recognised Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina had been pronounced stillborn by the doctor of medicine Radovan Karadzic, who led the Bosnian Serbs. His diagnosis was faulty as was so often to be the case. The infant state was not dead, but, nor was it healthy. Its lifeblood was regrouped and separated; its limbs stretched from their sockets. But it was alive. It was now an incubator state, vulnerable and isolated. Kept alive by infusions of rhetoric and promise and by occasional injections of aid. Sarajevo, its capital and seat of government, was battle scarred and besieged, the population shelled and hungry. To alleviate the suffering, the UN Security Council on the eighth of June had voted to open Sarajevo airport for the delivery of humanitarian aid. The airport was in Bosnian Serb held territory; their tanks and soldiers were on the runway. They protested. On the 28th of June, President Mitterand, in a bold, brave move flew into Sarajevo. The airport was then deemed to be open. The Bosnian Serb forces withdrew under the watchful blue eyes of the newly appointed Commander of Sector Sarajevo, the Canadian General Lewis Mackenzie.
Madame Sadako Ogata, The High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, was determined that UNHCR, the organisation she directed, would run the airlift. Jose Maria Mendiluce, her Special Envoy, already had a man on the ground in Sarajevo. The task was to airlift humanitarian aid from Zagreb to Sarajevo to feed the starving blockaded population of 385,000. The decision as to who should operate the airlift lay with the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. He had an offer from the United States who wished to undertake the task. With hindsight, an amazing offer, and one