Before we journey into Prijedor, I will have to explain what our mission was in Bosnia. The International Police Task Force's responsibility was to "monitor" the Local Police in both entities, in the Republika Srpska & in the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina. We were unarmed, no sidearms, shotguns, not even pepper spray. The American Contingent was armed with only a flack jacket & a Gerber multi-tool!
UNMIBH didn't refer to us as "Monitors", but as the politically correct term of "Co-Locators", that is we were to co-locate with active patrols of Local Police, watching what they did & how they did it. This scheme didn't really play out as envisioned, most of the "Co-Locators" waited until a complaint would come in, then they would follow-up. A valiant attempt was made by some IPTF officers, who did go out on patrols, checking on the Local Police, but the whole deal was just a name change to give the illusion that we were making a difference.
The IPTF in UNMIBH was comprised of many International police officers. I've served with officers from Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Jordan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesa, Canada, Poland, Germany, Austria, Ukrainan, Romanian....you name 'em. At one time the American Contingent was the largest.
So in typical UN fashion, I was assigned to IPTF Prijedor....
in the RS!!
So, during the first week in March 2000, myself & 3 other Americans found ourselves on the road to Prijedor. To say we were a little concerned would be an understatement. We were the first Americans assigned to IPTF Prijedor in the year since the NATO airstrikes against Serbian Army forces in Kosovo, & were expecting a certain amount of hostility from the locals. Fortunately, we were received with nothing but gracious hospitality by the average residents of Prijedor, as is the traditional custom of the people of Bosnia.
These 3 "internment" camps in the Prijedor area are infamous for the depraved & brutal treatment of "deportees", unfortunate Croats & Bosniacs unlucky enough to suffer the revenge of their Serb captors during the civil war. Mass killings of men, women, children & old people happened at these places & the stain of these atrocities can never be erased. We regularly came across survivors of these camps & their stories of the horrors they endured are hard to bear. The discovery of mass graves throughout Bosnia was routine, and bodies are still being recovered today.
Coincidence or fate? You decide! I already did!
For the first 8 months, I was the Admin & Motor Pool Officer. After that, I became the Public Security Center Prijedor's IPTF Liasion Officer. A PSC is similar to a police district. I coordinated UNMIBH mandates with the PSC Chief. PSC Prijedor had a about 800 local police officers, of which many were unindicted war criminals. Part of my job was to oversee the "decertification" of any LP that UNMIBH finally decided to remove. I also worked closely with UNMIBH Civil Affairs, SFOR (Stabilization Force, NATO) as well as several NGO's (Non-Government Organizations). I was semi-autonomous & did not have to report to the IPTF Prijedor Station Commander. My boss was in Banja Luka, the capital of the RS, about 50 km east of Prijedor. Later during my tour, I established a separate staff of "co-locators", officers working directly with the PSC department heads. Our office was in the PSC Prijedor building & it was sort of a IPTF Prijedor "light", but we had to rely on the station for logistical support, vehicles, computers, etc.
Here begins my long thesis on my life in Bosnia. Spite the war-torn nature of Bosnia, life was pretty good with the exception of no air conditioning during the hot Balkan summers. We could find just about everything we needed to survive the "ordeal" of this "hollywood" mission! Although we received contract pay from DynCorp, we also received MSA (Mission Subsistance Allowance) from the UN. It was no problem living in the economy with just MSA, at least it wasn't a problem for me. I lived in a comfortable house, had my own personal car, as well as a UN vehicle & was able to do a lot of traveling. When we wanted a little something from home, we'd travel to the nearest SFOR base & raid the PX! The PX at the "Metal Factory" (British SFOR) outside Banja Luka had lots of stuff from electronics, cameras, video cameras & treats of all kinds.
The local diet was basically veal. Seemed like the majority of restaurant menus promoted veal. I got kinda tired of it. It was hard to find everything you needed in one store in the economy, bread at the bakery, meat at the butcher, etc. The "Walmart" concept seemed to be just catching on, several new modern stores were opening up prior to my end of mission. Cell phones were big, just as internet services. As you can see, all the comforts of home, so to speak. We had lots of station parties & it seemed that we would have one at the drop of a hat.
The locals like to ply you with rakija (local moonshine) & pivo (beer) as is their custom of hospitality. You can't start a meeting without some type of drink, either booze or cafe' (coffee)! I chose cafe' thank you!
The country's industrial infrastructure was in shambles. Cafe' bars & CD shops seemed to be the only thriving industry, they were EVERYWHERE! The CD's are pirate copies, made in Serbia or Bulgaria. No DVD's then, but plenty of video movies. You never knew the quality of video until you watched it. I've laughed many times, even in a drama, you can't help it when you see people walking around in front of the video camera in the movie theater used to get the latest release. I've seen movies on video that hadn't been released to video in the US, that's how quick the pirates work! Don't get me started on the subtitles. I've seen movies with as many as 4 different set of subtitles in all kinds of languages.
Medical care was in a sad state in Bosnia. Woe be it unto you if you got seriously ill or injured & had to rely on local medicine. A hospital visit is nothing like back in the US, you are not fed by the hospital, your friends or family have to bring your food. Your meds have to be purchased at the local pharmacy, again by family or friends & brought to you in the hospital. Once proud of their medical system, nowadays, hospitals in Bosnia are nothing more than second rate first aid stations. Fortunately, if anything serious happened to us, we were flown out of the country to the nearest NATO facility for treatment, usually in Germany.
Almost all of the signage in the RS is written in cyrilic so unless you could interpet some of the lettering & guess at the rest, or had your trusty LA (Language Assistant) along with you, it was easy to get very lost. Speaking of LA's, I had one of the best, Vladimir "Vanja" Novakovic. He was a Serb and my friend. Vanja's subtle insight into the Serb mind was essential. He could detect deception & there was plenty of that to go around. Since he knew many of the people I had to deal with, his background information on them was necessary & allowed me to accomplish what I really managed to do. Vanja is now working for the EUPM (European Union Police Mission), which took over from IPTF when UNMIBH closed down operations in December 2002.
I like to say that there are really 2 governments in Bosnia, the elected politicians & the true government, the Serb Mafia. Their fingers are into every aspect of life there. They operate with impunity with occasional dog & pony shows by the local police to try & convince the people they are doing something about these vermin.
All this aside, I can say that my experiences in Bosnia have changed my life & I don't regret taking the adventure. It broadened by world view & opened my eyes to the true nature of man, that given the right circumstances, the extent of man's cruelty to his fellow man can't be measured. The three sides in the civil war must all bear the blame equally for what happened here. Muslim and Croats committed atrocities on a scale equal to the Serbs. The revenge & war cycle in Bosnia isn't over because like we were told in Fort Worth; "There is no peace in Bosnia, only the absence of war" & even the most pacifist Serb will tell you that war will resume once SFOR leaves.
