UNPROFOR AND JOURNALISTS

TRAPPED BY NEUTRALITY

AIM, Sarajevo, November 15, 1995 The UNPROFOR, or the United Nations Protection Forces, are a political necessity in our space. The first fundamental definition of these forces - the wish to be neutral, not to impose a solution, possibility of mediation between the conflicting parties and of offering aid to the civilians - was actually the source of the major problem of UN soldiers and B&H. Because, peace that the UN Protection Forces were expected to keep has never been established, and in the conditions of continuing war in B&H, the "blue helmets" were constantly tested - which party were they more inclined to?

That is exactly why their relation towards the local public, more precisely to journalists, was specific. Briefly, it was based on an attempt not to irritate anyone with the information issued by the UNPROFOR, and if possible not to flare-up the already agitated passions. It, therefore, happened at times that a piece of information obvious and known to everybody was not even publicized by the UNPROFOR, because of assessments that otherwise, the UNPROFOR itself would have gotten in an awkward situation. The scenario was already run-in: Serb shells shot at civilians and civilian facilities in Sarajevo - the UNPROFOR did not dare openly publish that this happened, because the Serb party would afterwards block their convoys and take hostages. The UNPROFOR which was in a way a hostage itself of Karadzic's rebels, at the same time became a hostage of its own position.

Nevertheless, journalists (although a minority among them) were "pampered" by the UNPROFOR - from press-cards which enabled more fortunate among them even at the time of the fiercest siege of the city to fly by UN planes to civilization and back into hell, to transportation around the city in UN armoured vehicles and daily press conferences organized for journalists. On the other hand, when one disregards the UN press-cards which were glamorous for the circumstances in Sarajevo, there was a constant lack of information. Namely, it was not easy to get from the UNPROFOR what the journalists had actually visited it for - relevant information. In fact, UNPROFOR skpokesmen not rarely needed great oratorical skills to explain to journalists that what happened did not happen, that what they saw was not what had actually happened. UNPROFOR press conferences resembled the following: "do you really believe your own eyes better than us?" Should the fact be taken into account that the war in the media and propaganda are one of the major segments of the total relations on the territory of B&H, it is even clearer why UNPROFOR, with uncoordinated policy within its own national batallions, chose to follow the path of least resistance in communication with the Bosnian public. The role of a justice in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian war which the soldiers were expected to play, whose high commands comprehended the conflicts as political establishments in their respective countries did, gradually became the burden "blue helmets" were forced to live with in Bosnia.

The unenviable position of the UNPROFOR in this respect is perhaps best illustrated by a meeting of B&H Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic and the commander of Sector Sarajevo, Herve Gobillar (???) which could almost be said to be an anegdote, when the latter came to the seat of the Prwsidency to tell the Prime Minister that he had certain knowledge that the shells which were showering the building of the Presidency at the time were fired from the Serb position on surrounding hills. The meeting hardly lasted five minutes, because the Prime Minister practically chased the UN Commander away by saying: "You need not have come to tell us what we already know only too well. We expect from you to tell us what you have done about it!"

The UNPROFOR, of course, neither did nor could have done anything about it, but when it at least for once wished to openly and directly give the public true information, it experienced what was coming to it - humiliation.

Another example is linked to the fact that the UNPROFOR finally lived to see balance established, in other words, to see the Bosnian party accused of crimes. With no doubt that there were such instances, although in view of the nature of the war in B&H incomparably less (although the UNPROFOR passed them over in silence, like in the case of the city bully Caca), this time, the UNPROFOR made a wrong selection of the incident. Namely, when in a well performed operation, a unit of the Army of B&H on Mount Igman destroyed a Serb command and liquidated about twenty of its officers, the UNPROFOR presented it to the journalists as "a terrible massacre committed by the Bosnian party". The message actually implied: there was a tribal war going on in Bosnia, they all massacred each other and they were all the same. Even the local journalists from independent media carried the mentioned UNPROFOR information about the massacre on Mount Igman trying to prove that they were unbiased by neutrality and faith in UN information. The mistake was that unbiased did not necessarily mean neutral, but something else and more complex. Not long after this event, it was verified that no massacre was committed on Mount Igman, but that a purely military, highly efficient operation took place there. But, it seemed good for UNPROFOR to create, with an unverified and untrue information, the impression that something new had happened, a sudden turn which spoke in favour of the long established hypothesis which resulted from the policy of the least resistance - "they are all alike". On the other hand, any other similarly proved "correction of the looking-glass" UNPROFOR made, the local journalists would characterize as another proof that the "blue helmets" were working for the opposite party.

It seems that both the UNPROFOR and the journalists finally sighed with relief when the NATO finally got involved in the Bosnian reality and when developments were finally exposed and openly presented. The spokesmen of UNPROFOR were also relieved and started more and more frequently publicly presenting - without fear that they would irritate any of the conflicting parties - what had actually been happening in the military sphere in B&H. Because, the fourth, powerful player finally entered the game and everything had started happening according to its directives. The UNPROFOR itself, probably following actions of the NATO, sided with the Bosnians. The "blue helmets" are acquiring the image of protectors of justice and truth. But, war is too expensive and too complicated a game for anyone who should essentially be disinterested, to invest all its credits in it or put its future and career at stake, with no personal intentions. Now, it is called the "Bosnian party", and tomorrow after Dayton, who knows...

STRAJO KRSMANOVIC