United Nations Protection Force - Perception in Participating Countries

Perception in Participating Countries

The situation of the field was complex, due to the fact that there were three warring parties, and numerous para-military units, responsible for the most atrocious exations, and outside of the regular chain of command. Also, most of the parties would use ambiguous tactics. For instance (and not exhaustively) :

• the Bosnian Serbs would use massive shelling of villages for their "ethnic cleansing", while alleging their good faith.
• General Mladić had ordered the shelling of a sector near the Sarajevo airport, while he was on official visit, on the express purpose of appearing heroic in front of the French Blue helmets and to cast doubts as to who was responsible for the bombardment.
• The Bosnian party would use the Safe Areas to the best of the tactical situation to storm Serb positions or villages.
• In numerous occasions, small groups of one of the warring parties would progress between enemy positions and UN positions and open fire on the Blue helmets in the hope of triggering a response from the UN troops.
• In the event of the Srebrenica massacre, which triggered a number of investigations to determine the reasons for the failure of the UN to deter Serbian forces to storm the town, accusations have been made, notably by General Morillon, that the Serbs actually fell in a propaganda trap used by the Bosnians to reinforce their image of victims and blur their use of Safe Areas as bases. Morillon said that he thought the hatred of the Serbs toward the population of Srebrenica had been largely underestimated by all parties, and the massacre could be explained as a loss of control of the Serbian hierarchy upon some of its troops. Morillon's speculations about "loss of control" were rendered irrelevant by the verdicts of genocide handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

A great deal of resentment and frustration arose in the participating countries, especially in those whose troops had been in contact with the most outrageous situations; for instance (and not exclusively)

• The involvement of the British battalion, especially concerning the Ahmići massacre, inspired the TV series Warriors by the BBC.
• The involvement of the Dutch battalion (DutchBat) in Srebrenica inspired The Enclave.
• The involvement of the Canadian battalion (CanBat) in Krajina inspired Peacekeepers.
• The general situation in Sarajevo inspired the comic Sarajevo Tango, by Hermann. (See samples, )
• The attack against French Blue Helmets by Serb forces disguised as French UN Troops on the bridge of Vrbanja .
• The taking of hostages amongst UN peace-keeping personnel when Bosnian Serb forces proceeded to retrieve their heavy weapons from UN controlled regroupement points by force.
• Particularly moving episodes, such as the "Sarajevo's Romeo and Juliet", inevitable in any conflict, but abundantly mediatised. The "Sarajevo's Romeo and Juliet" incident inspired the documentary Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo.
• In French, the word "sniper" entered the common vocabulary after "Sniper Alley" became famous, and it quite supplanted the usual words tireur d'élite, tireur embusqué or franc-tireur.