UNIPTF Tuzla station
2000 / 2001

Tuzla, December 25 2000 Hello colleague’s The evening before departure we had to report on Eindhoven military airbase. After the formal goodbye’s to family and chef's we had some time and drinks with our rotation. The next morning we were taken by coach to the military Air Terminal. After passport control and check in we had to wait in the departure hall. They even found a general to give us a motivation speech before departing. I never knew we were that good! The plane was a Hercules C-130. This is a noisy plane with very uncomfortable jump seats. Luckily we had earplugs. After a few hours of flying (great view out of the plane, this turboprop type of plain fly's at 3 km only) we arrived on Sarajevo International Airport, where we were picked up by our senior officer and someone from UN. Next we were taken by bus to UN-MHQ to take care of the administrative paperwork. When that was all finished we went to the Hotel Pallas, which is a reasonable hotel. The following days we spent taking tests ( :-) an Egyptian officer tried to tell us what a computer was and how to use it. Before he even started his lesson everyone was already exploring the PC's contents or playing solitaire on it. A very interesting lesson. ), doing our drivers exam (zigzag 100 meter forward, park backwards, drive again 200 meters, emergency stop, back to the start and later a ride trough Sarajevo) and listening to a lot of persons who all had something to tell about Bosnia, the UN and the peace agreement. In these days we also found out about important things as Sarajevsko Pivo, Slibovitch and several tasty Yugoslavian dishes. Several evenings we went to the old city centre and enjoyed there the parade of local beauties. On the last training day UN told us to which station we would go. My Region was Tuzla. The next day everyone for Tuzla region was picked op by a minibus. After a long ride over a beautiful mountain road we arrived in the late afternoon in Tuzla. My 'buddy' and I were assigned to Tuzla station. After being welcomed by the station commander we were send on house hunting. After seeing several houses we ended up at the house of a Bosnian police officer where we rented the basement apartment for 700,- Deutsch Mark (Euro 350,-)/ month all-in. Only the cooking we had to do by ourselves. Now, afterwards, I can say we made a quit reasonable choice.

Next there is a summary of the e-mails I sent to my Dutch colleague's.

29-08-2000, Greetings from Bosnia Hello all, As you can see we've got e-mail now Everything went well until now. Arrival in Sarajevo, the 15th, started with beautiful warm weather. On the airport we were met by our contingents senior the captain Rob and some UN officials. After all the paperwork in UN-MHQ we went to a hotel (Pallas) in Sarajevo. Just before arriving in the hotel a rainstorm broke out. The small mountain roads changed into little rivers and the water came in fountains out of the sewers. The rest of the week it was very hot with temperatures of 40-43 degrees Celsius. All week we had all kind of lessons, tests an a driving exam. Sarajevo is a nice city with a reasonable amount of bars and restaurants. For those of you who like watching women, the old inner-city is ideal. Every evening there is a parade of the local beauties walking up and down the main street in their most beautiful and revealing dresses. .............

On Tuesday we went to our new stations. I ended up in Tuzla Region on Tuzla station, together with Geert Till now I only worked for one day. The works is VERY MUCH doing nothing and waiting and drive a little bit through town to check on your police station. You won't get tired here. I was shown the way and the work by a Jordanian captain with 1 week IPTF experience who understands not much of the work. But for $90,-- a day, we keep smiling. Saturday we went to the Dutch SFOR base at Busovaca to collect a TV set and a satellite receiver which are fully operational now. So now we can follow all Dutch TV-stations and many others here. OK, so far so good. Soon I'll send a next e-mail. Greetings from a very warm ;-) Bosnia Me

Tuzla, September 09, 2000 Hallo All, All so for so good here in Bosnia. As I already told in my last e-mail I ended up together with Geert, who you probably know from the Schiphol Police Unit, in Tuzla at IPTF Tuzla Station. Tuzla is in the North-east of - and is the third city of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is as small as the fore instance the Dutch town of Hoofddorp near Schiphol. It is situated in the Muslim-Croatian Federation and the living standards are reasonable. You can buy almost anything here for, at least in our eyes, fair prices. Live for the people her seams not too bad. Most houses are looking well maintained and there are driving many as good as new cars. Also you see a lot of people with cell phones. Our Dutch phones are also working here. The car driving mentality here is as bad as in Amsterdam or Paris and you need eyes in the back of your head So it is not strange that some of our colleagues from quieter countries are driving around sweating like hell. (Sometimes you wonder how some people ever past the driving test.)

We rented an apartment in the villa of a local policeman. It is a big house with a lot of ground around and on it it has a big parking lot which can be closed. The man had when we arrived a young Doberman walking around but that has died. In the apartment we both have a bedroom for ourselves, a living room, a kitchen a shower with bath and a big hall. There is a central heating system that will go on when temperature drops in the autumn. Our landlord is living in two floors apartment above us with a living room all over half our apartment and the garage. It is very large and has a lot of luxury in it. The top floor has a big roofed terrace and can also be rented (but is not). With the satellite dish I mentioned in last mail we can receive about 90 TV stations en 60 different radio stations. This is much better than the satellite dish that came with the apartment. With that we received only some ten German stations in bad quality. We cannot receive Bosnian TV. For that you need a special aerial. As a luxury we have all day streaming water in our house. The water company is only providing services from 05.00 till 09.00 and from 16.00 till 19.00, but our landlord installed a tank from 1 m3 in his cellar with an electric pump on it.

The first one and a half week here it was very hot. There was a heat wave and temperatures were between 40 and 43 degrees Celsius by daytime. At night it remained over 25 degrees Later it cooled a little and now we're having real Dutch weather with one dry day next day rain, fog in the morning and temperatures from maximum about 17 degrees. Time to wear a coat again. Somewhere in the hills above Tuzla there is a dammed lake, about 10 kilometres from here. If the weather will clear I'll try to go there and have a look.

(If Leijla ever reads this: you still owe me a picture ;-) but, with or without the picture, please send me an e-mail to tell how you are now.)

The main part of our job is monitoring how local police is working, a lot of talking with all kind of people, drinking coffee with the chief and deputies of police and meanwhile give advises, and share ideas and opinions. Every Friday the police have to provide statistics about all they have done in that week. The only work in writing we have to produce is incident-reports when some special has happened or after a request of the investigations unit a follow-up report on a specified incident (fol.rep: what did the police, is it investigated and how, has there been made a protocol, did they send the case to the prosecutor and did he act on it, e.s.o.) Soon the earea of responsibility of the 2nd LPS will be extended with a large part in the inner-city of Tuzla, including the university, the sports centre and the football stadium. An other of our tasks is, several times a week, to be present when evictions take place. This is when people are living illegally in the houses of people who fled in the war (mostly Serbs) and are now reclaiming their property. The city council then has to arrange this. We the have to watch that the police and the housing authority are acting correctly. Practically they are always doing so because a lot of the people to be expelled are people they know. Next thing that is happening is that the Serb quickly redecorates his house, and then sells it again for a good price and runs back with his pocket filled with money to Serbia or Srpska where he is living in an other house now. We picked up some prices here. A house like the one we are living in here will do about DM 150.000,-- (€ 75.000,--). If I compare it to the Dutch housing market it will do there, I estimate, € 750.000,--. Also we have to provide escorts when people from Srpska have to testify in court. They always claim to be afraid to come alone with the police. You have to follow the car of the court-police to the inter-ethnic boundary line, there the police takes over the suspect from their Srpska colleagues and we take over the escort from our local IPTF colleagues. Next we drive to the court building in Tuzla, wait for a few hours, and when they are finished the whole story the other way around. Sometimes there isn't any language assistant available. In that case I usually go with other colleagues to one of the ten other police stations to see how they are fulfilling their task. When there is nothing to do (often) I take many times a car and go driving around in Tuzla and surroundings 'to learn to know my area of responsibility' and to have something better to do than sit and do nothing in the station. In the station you always have to watch your car keys carefully because some people are always as quick and as long as possible disappeared . . . . . . It is also necessary always to check your car completely, because some drivers create (small) accidents without reporting it. Due to UN regulations is the last driver personally responsible! Until now I already noticed damage twice! I always prefer to take one of the old pickups, they are already so damaged that no one cares if there is another scratch. Food is reasonably. There is not to much variety and it is not so much taste, but quality is good. Also in the restaurants where we usually eat is the menu often short and almost everywhere the same (cost 2,5 - 5 euro) Everywhere on the roadsides you find little shops where you can buy food and drinks. Some are open for almost 24 hours. That's easy. Although the local Tuzlanska pivo is good we usually prefer to buy our Heineken or Carlsberg and our whiskey in the PX. It is a little cheaper there (famous grouse DM 18,--/0.7 ltr) In the Tuzla town centre (2 a 3 km) there are some better and some bigger shops and a real supermarket and somewhere there must also be an internet cafe. So if we are really bored we can go there to surf or chat. Because there are so many dayshift Geert and I are always volunteering to be the driver to bring everyone to his home / collect them from - . The better part of that is that you then take the car home and have permission to use it privately up to 40 km. Regularly there are all kind of party's with, of course, a lot of booze and fun. Then I don't drive!!) Finally my next leave will be end of this month. I'll fly by MALEV via Budapest to Schiphol. That is it for now. Finally our address here is: telephone: 00-387-35-280.002 P/a Nermin SULJETOVIC,(speaks German) 18c Hrvatske Brigade 158 75000 Tuzla Bosnia i Herzegovina When we are in the station dial: 00-387-35-283400 = UN-Tuzla switchboard, and ask in English for UN-IPTF Tuzla station. You will get the duty officer. Ask him/her to call me (beware: sometimes they are speaking fluently Bangladeshi or Pakistani.) OK, all the best for now and hopefully till writing or e-mailing Regards Hans Tuzla, October 15, 2000 Hallo all, At this moment I'm working very hard for the boss. I'm sitting dressed in my sportshorts only on the terrace of my apartment here Next to me there are a big cup of coffee (Hey, don't laugh, I’m working!), a radio playing some music and a terribly noising handset (portofoon). The temperature is about 30 degrees Celsius again, real bad weather for October. But ....... I know, ...... somebody has to do the dirty jobs :-) Today there was only one interpreter for àll the station and he has gone with an other colleague. So today I have to keep myself busy again. The first leave last month is already passed and I'm getting used to the situation here fully again. The work is still so tiring that you have to look for it your self. If you would it is possible to have every day days like I have today. Luckily it is also possible to find work if you do want to work. I've got a promotion! Now I'm as a team leader responsible over the monitors of 2nd Tuzla-LPS. My giant team consists beside of me of a Jordanian, an Indian and an Egyptian (resp. 2 captains and a major). Recently I managed to teach all of them the basic principals of computing. Now they can practise by them self’s and type and send e-mails all over Bosnia and the world. One of them even managed to process a typed patrol report of 5 lines!! But this week he will have to do more practise by explaining why he wrote that an eviction has taken place without any problems where he was present; but just now the station got a complaint that the eviction had not taken place and that IPTF was not present. But for the rest my officers are very keen. Only you can see that they are only used to work at a desk. Last week we investigated several complaints that were filed against 2LPS police officers. They should have abused people and have taken bribes. The abuse, so we found out, was a gipsy woman who was warned for four weeks already to stop begging. As the police saw her begging again she was arrested, but she resisted heavily. It was necessary to use a little force. The corruption was not possible to prove or deny. No officer had reported to have been on the place where it should have happened. Sometimes I go with the officers assigned to a bigger traffic control. If there is anything special to do in the Medan sports centre I always try to arrange an evening shift. In that case the police is always there to provide security and I have to check that. In this way I've already visited some pop concerts form local and international artists and some sport matches. Last week we had to check on an Orthodox Church. There was a holy mass for some special occasion and the regional bishop had come for that. There came about 70 busses with Orthodox Serbs/Srpska's, a platoon of 100 Russian SFOR with only 4 MP's to take part in it. And that I had to watch, together with 3 muslim colleagues and same languages assistant. Nightlife is still not much here. The only reasonable clubs are regularly raided by police and IPTF. In a big razzia the clubs are surrounded and visitors and staff are controlled. So, not thè place to be. In Tuzla town we've found a few places but it's not much. Our station commander and the deputy are both replaced next week. The station commander has got a new job for the UN tribunal and the deputy's mission is finished. Likely an English officer will be our next commander. In the mean time also my college Geert has arrived at the house. He's also very busy today and he came to sweat out a little (Pffff still 30 degrees). For now first lunch and a small, cold beer and then try to stay busy till four o'clock (and not get sunburned). Last week some Germans organised a farewell party in the Harley Davidson Club. I always thought that muslims we not allowed to drink by their religion. But Allah is not seeing to good by night I think, because all these by daylight decent men and women were boozing like hell. Despite the warm weather one is preparing for winter here. Last week our landlord got two truckloads of stone coal. One load with high caloric small lumps and one with big about 50x50 centimetres sized lesser quality lumps. All uncles and nephews came helping to shovel and carry the coals into the garage. A warm job for them with these temperatures. But ..... working is beautiful, I can look at it for hours ;-) So, this is all the gossip for the moment This afternoon I shall try to e-mail this letter and now I'm going to enjoy the sun (which moved to the other half of the terrace, so the wire of the laptop is getting to short to work) a little longer. Greetings to all, till next mails/letters. Tuzla, Sunday November 19, 2000 A month has gone since last letter and by now we have passed the first half of this mission. I'm still not convinced about the usefulness of this mission (or even less then when we started) The work is still not much and the people here are still wanting to kill each other as soon as the UN is leaving (So just being here is maybe the good thing of this mission), the police is capable for their duties but - because of the low salary's? - corrupt. But we keep smiling and counting down. The days that we càn work, I mostly fill with visits to 2nd Tuzla Local Police station. Much talking and joking with the 3 deputies and sometimes the commander. And every time again drinking little cups of liquid tar (or Turkish coffee as they call it). Also, when possible, I go and drive around in or outside Tuzla to fill the time. At the end of the afternoon I go to the station to do the paperwork. The third month I started with almost two weeks of leave. Then a few days like I just told. On November 3rd the rotation before us got their UN medal so we had a daytrip to Sarajevo for a change. Now preparations for the elections started. No one was allowed to take leave anymore. As a result of that we had to do the little work we had with 5 man in one car Also this week the PX on Tuzla RHQ was finally opened. It is a few containers big building with a reasonable assortment of dry and tinned food, soft-alcohol and liquors. For cheap booze you still better go to Sarajevo to the PX on the German SFOR base. By now the station commander and the deputy have changed. We now have British Anthony as chief and a Frenchie as second in command. They both look ok to work with. On November 11 the elections, which the international community feared so much, were held. As the locals predicted, everything went without any problem The better part of this day was that we had to go to several small villages where we never went before, because local police was guarding the polling stations. In twelve ours we visited our 10 polling stations 3 times. Every time stop for a few minutes and on to the next. Now I also understand also why all the autobusses, donated by the Netherlands, are looking so bad. When I was with some difficulty driving on a bad, muddy goat path with my pickup suddenly an autobus was coming from the opposite direction, doing a scheduled service there. As it was a very narrow path I had to drive backwards for a few 100 meters through the mud to let the bus pass. And Hurray!!!!, Geert got bad news!!!. By doctors orders he immediately has to quit smoking. Worse for him is that he has a bacteria on his lungs and has to use antibiotics for a week. November 14 we've got permission to drive to Sarajevo to wave goodbye to our rotation 11 and to welcome rotation 13. For us this means we've past half time. Also this day we had to pick up at the UN MHQ a second hand Nissan 4-runner to replace a car that was wrecked half a year ago. Further more there was not much to do. The weather this passed weeks was reasonable. Mostly dry and by day some sun with a moderate temperature. At the beginning of the week we had almost night frost, now it is a little warmer again. But, as this is my off-duty weekend it is raining outside ofcourse. (In comparation with Holland we are here lucky with the weather. It is much worse there). OK, so far for now again. See you all next time.

One day I had to bring a British colleague to Banja Luka. That's also something special. You then go into the Republica Srpska (the Serbian part of Bosnia) and there is everything, including the traffic signs, written in Cyrillic signs. This was the only time we drove, due to the expected bad weather, fully prepared with sleeping bags bottles of water and thermos cans with hot coffee. So if the car broke down or we had to spend the night in the car we would survive. In Banja Luka it self was not much to do, probably because it was weekend. But it gave me the possibility to enjoy a few cups of very good Dutch coffee at the café in the Dutch SFOR base and to visit the PX there (which is not as good as the other px's we have visited).

When demotivation sometimes strikes I think of a photo I recently saw on CNN. It has been taken just after the war has ended in Sarajevo. A little girl standing on a street corner with next to her a little table with her dolls. She is selling her most loved toys to be able to get some food. If only we can avoid that that is happing again, we have not been here completely for nothing ......

The september 2001 Tuzla team Andrzej SZYDLIK (POL) Dirk POHLMAN (GER) Razzeque CHEEMAA (PAK) Yevgenia SOKOLOVA (UKR) Shaheen BARLAS (PAK) Mamun CHOWDHURY (BAN) Eric MALBRANCQ (FRA) Mohammad ALQUADAH (JOR) Shabbir KHAN (PAK) Syed KAZMI (PAK) Morten BILLSTROEM (DK) Thomas FARREL (IRL) Andre RESEP (INS) Lars ANESTRAND (SWE) Aymen WARDANI (EGY) Oliver FEHNERS (GER) Lydie PANIZ (FRA) Ahmed QAWASMEH (JOR) Hans VERHOOG (NET) Tony WHITTAKER (UK) Jan-Erik ANDERSON (SWE) Hasan BAYTEKIN (TUR) Anthony KELLIHER (IRE) Laszlo URI (HUN) Geerit VD WERKEN (NET) Pal FELAGYHAZY (HUN) Ali DIKICI (TUR) Bhanulal DAS (BAN) Jabinson PURRBA (INS) Carsten LITT (GER) Allan LAEGTESKOV (DK) From later date: My friend from Ghana Eric BOADY and his chief mr DARKO . . The two crazy Spanish ;-) Santiago ... & Fran Caamaño At least 1 man from India At the end 2 men from Austria Regrettably I've no list with the names of the colleagues who joined us later in the year. If anyone knows their names, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail

and our highly apriciated language assistants Ahmo BALIC Alenka TANOVIC Alma AHMEDBEGOVIC ----> When are we going shopping again? Alma MASIC Almira MURADBEGOVIC Emir ATIKOVIC Hasan NUHANOVIC Meliha KADIC Mujo HODZIC Lejila HADZIHRUSTIC Nermin KLAPIC Nihad ALIHODZIC Sandra EL-HIJAZEN Tatjana TOMIC Semso JAHIC Some of us can also be found now on the UN-IPTF Tuzla Facebook site.

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In spring 2008 I received this link
The building we knew as MHQ UNIPTF Tuzla is now restored and in use with the Austrian Bundesheer as the "EUFOR Austrian National Element".

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