My Bosnian Tour/My NATO Assignment

July 7, 2013

As I reminisce about my life certain dates come to mind.  It was about fourteen years ago that my unit deployed to Bosnia as part of a NATO peacekeeping force.  It was a new adventure with the same perils.  Man against man for control of the land and the resources therein; a three-way civil war in the Balkans.  For those that don’t know, the Balkans were once part of the Ottoman empire which later became the country of Turkey.  Soon after the U.S.S.R. disintegrated it caused a chain reaction within that part of Europe.  That chain reaction in the former country of Yugoslavia caused a three-way civil war between the Bosniaks, Serbs, and the Croats. 

I was later deployed with a segment of my unit to the outskirts of a city called Brchko.  This city was strategically located along the Sava River and became the Serb stronghold.  Brchko was originally placed under the joint administration of the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims.  The history of the Serbs who are Orthodox Christians was influenced by the Byzantine Empire.  The Muslims, sometimes known as the Slavs, were influenced primarily by the Ottoman Empire and converted to Islam, mostly Sunis, in the 15th and 16th century.  The Croats, sometimes called Bosniaks, were Roman Catholics.  This region of Europe became extremely violent with atrocities committed by the warring factions.  Even one hundred years ago in 1914 it was the powder keg that launched World War I when Arch Duke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo.  And now, American soldiers, men and women, were thrust into the middle of this conflict in order to maintain peace and stability in Europe.

One day I was tasked with meeting a Serbian Commander who was suspected of committing war crimes.  My Muslim interpreter was fearful of attending this meeting.  I, like many soldiers, was not fluent in the Serbo-Croatian language and so the Army in its wisdom contracted with the local population to be interpreters for certain U. S. military personnel and their teams.  I sat in a room with about eight Serbian soldiers, my Muslim interpreter who was their sworn enemy, and three-four U. S. soldiers who accompanied me.  We were to discuss projects within the area that would help return Croats and Muslims to the city of Brchko.  During the initial phases of the civil war, the Croats and Muslims had been forcibly removed from their homes, and sought to return which was one of the objectives of the Dayton Accords which was the international agreement to bring peace and stability back to that region, at least in theory.  Needless to say, there was a lot of tension based on the fact that all three parties had shed blood over the preceding seven years of civil war.  Now part of my duty was to have them return ground that they had taken in war. The Serbian Commander was very cordial, respectful, but blunt.  His battle worn face, his steely eyes, and those of his men, conveyed to me that this meeting was going to be an exercise in futility.  We talked for about three hours on different subjects having nothing to do with the primary objective of the meeting.  It was customary to eat and drink and get to know one another before getting down to brass tacks.  My Muslim interpreter had informed me that there was a factory a few kilometers down the road where the bodies of Muslims and Croats had been massacred.  He informed me that their bodies had been ground up into a meat grinder and dumped into the Sava River so that the evidence of war crimes could be disposed of.  Midway through the meeting I proposed a tour of the facility.  This proposal was not on the itinerary nor did I expect it to be acceptable if such crimes had been committed.  Later as the meeting adjourned I was to return by military convoy to Camp McGovern and not deviate from the route that was pre-planned because the country was still littered with IEDs and other dangerous obstacles within and around the entire city.  As we drove through the city en route back, the driver in the lead vehicle radioed me that a woman running and screaming was approaching our convoy.  I had him dismount and go talk to her and he came back and informed me that she had told him that there we several armed soldiers that she recognized as the men who had broken into her home and taken away her husband and two sons some years earlier.  She was terrified beyond belief as my interpreter informed me that she was in danger of being kidnapped by those men in order to silence her.  I could see the armed men standing in the alleyways about 200-300 meters away waiting for us to leave.  It was a moment I couldn’t soon forget.  I had her loaded into the back of one of the vehicles and we proceeded to the U. S. civilian representative on the outskirts of the city and I turned her over to the U.S. /U.N. rep and informed them of the circumstances of her plight.  It was just one day of many in that country where real life and death situations for the people of that country, and most looked to the U.S. soldiers to make a difference in their life.  The human condition throughout the world can sometimes be very tenuous at best.  The desire to live in peace, safety, and security; the desire to live free and prosperous; the desire to not live in fear for oneself or ones family is what most of us, no matter who you are, aspire to have.  The so-called fight for economic, political, and social power is a never ending struggle.  I would tell any person who seeks a life free of tyranny to be not afraid in your hour of darkness.  Like Henry David Thoreau said “Advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and be fearless, grow in self awareness, and don’t have any doubts about your ability.” 

Bosnia was a great experience for me; there were many lessons to be learned from it, good and bad.  I don’t know what happened to that woman, but I hope she’s well.  I don’t know what happened to my interpreter, but I hope he’s well also.  I don’t’ know what happened to the men and women who fought and died on all sides, but I hope they’ll have eternal peace.  And I hope that country can prosper and that those three groups can somehow reconcile and live in harmony.  As I remember Bosnia, I remember the long days and the longer nights and a cold winter.  And I remember that the Bosnian people and their quest for peace.