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international community,” recalled UNHCR Special Envoy
José-Maria Mendiluce, “to have to say, ‘I can feed you...but I
can’t guarantee that the siege of Sarajevo will cease.’”
A similar clash of views characterized perceptions of the
U.N. relief effort in the eastern enclaves in Bosnia. Some views
stressed the U.N.’s feat of running a gauntlet of obstacles to
keep civilian populations alive through convoys and airdrops.
Others described the “safe havens” as UN-managed concentration
camps or ghettoes that had eroded people’s sense of
self-reliance and compromised their future.
Confronting Conflicting Understandings of the "Humanitarian"
At issue was the matter of what sort of humanitarian
action to undertake. Different actors such as the U.N. Security
Council, the warring parties, donor governments, humanitarian
organizations, and civilian populations themselves had
different views of what constituted “humanitarian” assistance.
Defining such assistance bedeviled the task of the
Sanctions Committee. Charged by the Security Council with
administering exemptions to the U.N.’s economic sanctions
for foodstuffs, medical supplies, and other essential humanitarian
items, representatives of governments that comprised
the Committee had the responsibility for reviewing all proposed
shipments by humanitarian (and commercial) organizations
to or through the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Given the thousands of requests, the process would have
been difficult at best. In the absence of a standard working
definition of humanitarian items, however, the review became
totally dysfunctional. “You cannot have a standard definition
of what is ‘humanitarian,’” explained staff members who gave
applications a preliminary screening. “It varies from country
to country.” Noting that the Security Council had imposed
sanctions on countries as diverse as Iraq, Haiti, and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, staff members expressed the view
that what was essential for life in the tropics—for example,
bananas—would constitute a luxury item in the Balkans. No
“one size fits all” approach to humanitarian necessities would
be possible.
In the absence of clear criteria and of an expeditious way
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