op 18 front pages-converted - The Watson Institute for International ...

with its concern for minority populations in the 10 multiethnic
areas to be established, arguably led to an increase in
ethnic cleansing as the parties sought to strengthen territorial
claims before signing any agreement. According to many who
witnessed the events at close hand, subsequent discussions
surrounding the Owen-Stoltenberg plan, which sanctioned
the tripartite division of Bosnia and Herzegovina along more
clear-cut ethnic lines, fueled the conflict further still.
As the situation worsened, the holding operation in which
humanitarian organizations had been engaged became less
and less tenable. “The failure of the international community
to reverse the logic of war,” said UNHCR Special Envoy
Nicholas Morris in mid-1993, “has meant the failure of humanitarian
operations predicated on the logic of war being
reversed.”
U.N. humanitarian organizations were caught in a no-win
situation. They were tarnished by association with Security
Council decisions that had failed to achieve their stated objectives.
They also were faulted for not having found a way of
extracting cooperation from the same belligerents who had
ignored the expressed wishes and established standards of the
international community.
The political debate had come full circle. In some quarters,
humanitarian organizations were blamed for the proliferation
of the suffering that they had been expected to address. Earlier
chastised for participating in ethnic cleansing by assisting
people to leave dangerous situations, they were later looked to
for assistance in whatever population movements might follow
an eventual peace agreement. Diplomats, politicians, and
peacekeeping officials, once critical of humanitarian organizations
for suspending operations in the face of insecurity and
abuse, themselves debated whether U.N. troops would have
to be withdrawn from the operational theater.
Many of those interviewed believe that more decisive
political or military action early on would have made a critical
difference to the credibility of all U.N. efforts. “We are in the
presence of totally savage operators,” said UNHCR’s Acting
Special Envoy Klaus von Helldorff in March 1993. “If there
were some sense of humanity among them, we would have no
difficulty in supplying people fully with what they need. Had
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