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

had two principal contacts: the government agency that
handled all food distribution to the non-Serb areas of the city
(and was suspected by many of being deeply engaged in black
market activity), and the Ministry of Refugees and Displaced
Persons. Some NGOs charged that UNHCR was so concerned
to appear neutral that it virtually ignored the Minister, Amelia
Omersoftic. The Minister herself shrugged off any talk of
tension but alleged that UNHCR aid had weakened the selfreliance
of the city populace.
By reducing the authority of the central Bosnian government,
the war also increased the importance of the role of the
municipal authorities. It was the city council in Sarajevo that
refused to allow U.N. supplies to be distributed there in
February 1993 until the needs of the eastern enclaves were met.
In Zenica, where one third of the current population comprised
refugees or displaced persons, UNHCR’s interlocutor,
Mahmutcehajic Azim, deputy refugee commissioner of the
city government, was a powerful figure. When the residents of
one collective center arrived at his office, protesting that they
had not received food for three days, he allegedly posted
armed guards and warned that they could be sent to a “worse
place.” He angrily complained to UNHCR about the lack of
food, even though its convoys had been held up by the fighting
and the steel works (where food for refugees in Zenica was
cooked) had neither fuel nor electricity.
In the so-called Republic Serbska, U.N. officials dealt daily
with Bosnian Serb authorities in the capital of Pale. Permission
from the Ministry of Refugees and Displaced Persons was
required before any convoy could move within or through
Bosnian Serb-controlled territory. The U.N. also had to ensure
liaison with Serb authorities at the Sarajevo airport, who were
posted to assure that an agreed portion of relief supplies was
turned over to them for distribution.
The landscape of humanitarian actors involved a final
concentric circle made up of NGOs and the ICRC. Their ranks
swelled during the two years of the crisis. In the half-year
between February and September 1993 alone, the number
active in the region increased from 65 to 126.
Many NGOs such as the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Rescue
40