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

and, in Zagreb, the return of confiscated Serb property. UNHCR
staff also organized seminars for civilian and military judges
and police.
Protection during a war is not only difficult but also
dangerous. Yet, as in any humanitarian crisis, it was the
physical presence of U.N. officials that provided the best
guarantee. The UNHCR protection officer in Zenica worked
closely with the British battalion based at Vitez. On September
10, there was a fight near the British base, after which Croat
soldiers came looking for Muslim villagers to trade as hostages
or to kill. The officer foiled the soldiers’ plans by asking
the British UNPROFOR commander to escort 30 Muslims out
of the village to Novi Travnik.
Working in the war zone of Central Bosnia, where fighting
between Muslims and Croats had claimed thousands of lives,
UNHCR officials were engaged in protection every day. On
one occasion, an official happened upon four Muslims who
had been taken off a Red Cross ambulance and were detained
in a cinema. On another, he accompanied a field officer of the
U.N. Centre for Human Rights to visit the embattled Muslim
enclave of Stare Vitez.
But for every uplifting success, there were many demoralizing
failures. A member of the Humanitarianism and War
Project team accompanied a UNHCR protection officer to the
small village of Rotilj, just outside the Croat-held stronghold
of Kiseljak in Central Bosnia. Much to the embarrassment of
UNPROFOR headquartered there, the Croats had gathered
together Muslims from surrounding villages and herded them
into Rotilj. The Croat commander said this was for their own
safety, but the UNHCR visit uncovered disturbing information.
Twenty-two Muslims were taken out each day and forced
to dig trenches at the Croat lines; several Muslim men had
disappeared; some of the Muslims were living in houses that
had been destroyed; and only the women were permitted out
to pick up food. There was little that the protection officer
could do beyond registering his concerns with the local authorities.
When Croatian authorities rounded up large numbers of
refugees without papers in 1992, UNHCR protection officers
as well as officials from the U.S. and German embassies were
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