International Organizations in RS

Withdrawal or Departure

AIM Banja Luka, 16 April, 1999

The first "victims" of NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Republika Srpska were international organizations. The avalanche of demonstrations has devastated most of their seats. Along with offices of embassies of the USA, Great Britain, Germany and France, humanitarian organizations were also targets of attacks of unbridled demonstrators. This was the reason for almost all international organizations to shut down their offices and leave RS on that same day.

The first who set out towards Bihac, the town which is in the "zone of responsibility" of Bosniac office, were the officials of IPTF. The others stopped in Sarajevo where they continued work. Alun Roberts, UN spokesman for the Banja Luka-Bihac region, confirmed that a certain number of members of IPTF soon after that had returned to the territory of RS. As concerning representatives of the High Commissioner for Refugees, they have kept a part of their local personnel in the Banja Luka office, but carrying out of the projects has been interrupted.

At press conferences of international organizations since recently held by representatives of agencies of the United Nations separately from spokesmen of SFOR and OHR, journalists in Banja Luka do not have the opportunity to hear the representative of the High Commissioner for Refugees any more. As Alun Roberts has stated, spokesman of UNHCR Wendy Rapenport is in Sarajevo where she is discharging her duties. Christine Colbert is also in "exile", who is still officially the head of the office of the UN World Food Programme, but from Sarajevo. Being a citizen of the USA, superiors recommended Ms. Colbert not to return to the territory of Republika Srpska for reasons of her personal safety. In a statement given by Christine Colbert for AIM through mediation of her local personnel in Banja Luka, she stressed that rations of food for the poorest inhabitants of the Banja Luka region for May and June would be distributed as usual and that she was sorry that the offices of World Food Programme in Banja Luka were demolished.

According to its mandate, the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Banja Luka should have been closed in May, but unofficial information say that there is a possibility that their mandate will be prolonged until the end of the year due to the newly developed humanitarian situation. When UNHCR and UN World Food Programme are concerned, just like IPTF, the international police under the auspices of UN, their mandates are expiring in June this year.

A few days ago, personnel of regional OSCE office returned to Banja Luka. Spokesman of the Banja Luka Office of the High Representative, Christian Palme, announced return of a hundred representatives of the United Nations to Republika Srpska. Opening of three airports in B&H for civilian flights announces stabilization of internal circumstances in B&H and normalisation of relations with international organizations.

Departure of humanitarian organizations from RS inflicted considerable damage to RS. Such assessments could be heard from representatives of the government which addressed an appeal to all international organizations to return and promised to guarantee their safety.

Dr Branislav Lolic, director of the Banja Luka Clinical Hospital Centre, declared recently that Banja Luka and Republika Srpska are threatened by a humanitarian catastrophe. According to his words, about 15 thousand refugees from FRY found refuge in Republika Srpska. There are sick and injured persons among them, who will be offered medical treatment in Banja Luka health institutions, according to possibilities, equally as local inhabitants. Dr Lolic stressed that about 30 per cent of the aid for health services last year arrived from international humanitarian organizations and that about 90 per cent of drugs for the Clinical Hospital Centre arrived from pharmaceutical industries and drug wholesale companies from Yugoslavia, so that supply of drugs will be another problem medical workers in Banja Luka will be faced with. He appealed on international humanitarian organizations to help in resolving growing humanitarian problems.

However, it is questionable how this aid will arrive in the future from the International Committee of the Red Cross, UN High Commissioner of Refugees, UN World Food Programme and similar international organizations because by the middle of the year, offices of majority of these organizations in Banja Luka will be closed. Indeed, offices of specialised agencies of the United Nations are already practically closed and they are just waiting for the month of June when their mandate expires and when foreign personnel will definitely leave this region.

One thing is certain: after the experience of the past several days, hardly any international humanitarian organization will take the risk of exposing its personnel and equipment to any danger.

Milkica Milojevic

(AIM)