The Crisis of Modernity!

Myth of the Soldier and Cult of the Nation:

The Crisis of Modernity!

Preface:(Rough draft 12/5/2004) The world has recoiled in mostly mute horror form a series of atrocities carried out by the Serbs in the name of "ethnic cleansing" and in their pursuit of a "Greater Serbia" that was to be created out of the former republics of the Old Yugoslavia. Llywelyn Morris, a former international "freedom fighter" with Croat forces and a committed Welsh Republican, expresses a highly individual view of the ethnic crisis and violent confrontation from his own personal experiences during the two of the five years of inter-ethnic conflict.

He argues that it is modernity that caused the conflict and that Al-Qa'eda is a post-modern phenomena caused by American policy first in Afghanistan and then Iraq after the fall of Sadam. He fought Serbian expansionism on frontlines in both the Republic of Croatia and then Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) as the violence spread in the Balkan peninsula towards Kosovo and the endgame of civil war in Serbia. The breakup of the former Yugoslavia was the consequence of the Soviet union's withdrawal from empire which began in Afghanistan during 1989.

American covert military adventurism undermined the humanitarian mission and peacekeeping in such conflicts effort. Foreword The Bosnia conflict has received unprecedented world-wide media coverage; and yet the real significance and implications of this period of historic blood-letting to other regions of east Europe and central Asia are yet to be realised. There has been economic integration but on the political front Europe is dividing and realigning as long submerged nations re-emerge and strive for autonomy; to be self-governing societies. While some historic European nations are not self-determining there will be further upsurges of ethnic violence as they strive to assert a separate identity and a different future. This in a context of nation-states and the twilight of both the empires of the East and West and the rise of the neo-liberal bueacratic corporate capitalalism of the EU and China as an ultra-power.. The modern world has been shaped decisively by war, if not exclusively, it would be unrealistic to maintain that peace has been the norm or that international law in its service could effectively defy the application of superior force. War has been an unfortunate but constant phenomena in international life. Diplomacy is about the rational application of force, that is, the threat and where necessary the prosecution of force to achieve strategic socio-political aims. So there is an element of coercion in international relations. International law can only be effective if it is enforced and policed by an internationally constituted and recognised force. There will be peace when each state acts as moral agents in international affairs.

Mercenaries are professional soldiers who serve, for monetary reward, countries or groups that they do not belong to. Sometimes the political aims of fighters are so clear that we should hesitate to call these people mercenaries. Obviously these men are cause orientated or motivated by instrumental but principaled reasons irrespective of what and how they are paid. When an individual is motivated by a profound sense of social justice and internationalism; as was the case with George Orwell when he fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, it would be a misnomer to refer to them as anything other than "freedom fighters" or "international" volunteers. When an individual joins a poorly resourced and under-manned liberation movement, this consideration is legitimate. Such fighters are motivated by idealism and internationalism, they are not ideological "mercenaries" but individuals who are promoting a political cause, aim or object; through instrumental means. They have a long history but only recently appeared in print, most famously George Orwell.

In a sence whether an individual soldier is considered a mercenary, international volunteer, freedom fighter in a national liberation struggle or a regular soldier is a matter for the law makers in international institutions. The Yugoslav model of socialism has failed as has the ‘state’ capitalism of the former Soviet Union. And this lead to the Serb secessionist drive to create a "Greater Serbia" by subjugating the other Balkan national groups. As a left nationalist with socialist leanings I knew I had to oppose Serb expansionism and support the struggle of the oppressed nationalities in Yugoslavia for full independence from Belgrade. I was latter forced to accept that there could be no defence of a multi-ethnic Bosnia without international intervention. This did not happen until after Dayton. Now even the UN accepts that partition was all but inevitable. Stability may to return to the region and a durable peace to be constituted or civil war spread. The re-emergence not simply of old Balkan conflicts but of the local and more international alliances and strategies implies considerable danger for the stability of the region. Events in Bosnia must make us all fearful of the consequences of transformation of the established global political order. Modernity and anglo-American globalisation is the root cause of ethnic conflict and ugly ethnic hatreds. And yet an essential right; that of self-government, of self-determination must be basic, fundamental, to an enlightened world order. The repression of this inalienable right will tend to lead to dramatic upsurge in politically motivated violence; that is national-separatist sub-state terrorism or civil war; perhaps again on our own doorstep here and in central and western Europe. The solution is a self-governing community in which the individual is fully self-determing without loosing their established identity to "dominant market forces"!

Chapter (1): Nom de guerre
To many the life of the "contract soldier" seems exciting, unpredictable and even glamorous. The reality is less romantic and often mundane. The international volunteer endures hardships and risks life, limb and liberty while adversely effecting his livelihood. Mostly it is long periods of waiting, fear, isolation, disorientation and boredom; interrupted by unpredictable frenzies of fierce fighting at close quarters. Combat is disorientating traumatic and stressful; eventually tragic. While the long periods of boredom breeds a sense of isolation and bone numbing loneliness. Eventually action is seen as a welcome relief from fear and uncertainty. This is essentially the experience of front-line combat soldiers throughout history. But for the modern soldier who has responsibility for his actions to a much greater degree; and socially aware moral sense, the cost of constant exposure to heart freezing battle has become almost unbearable. Despite the great psychological pressures, not least the feeling of culture shock, my time with the Croats in Bosnia and Croatia was a varied experience with depth and density. Over intense, almost mythical, if not archetypal but mostly focused on adventure. I fell in love with a charming Bosnian girl I wanted to marry, the daughter of the future Minister of Sport, called Vanda. I made so many close friends and had quite a few "close calls". I was also a witness to the break-up of a the former Yugoslavia in a frenzy of ethno-religious blood lust. The old Yugoslav Federation had become dominated by Serbia which could only lead to ethno-political in-fighting and the disintegration of the South Slav nation-state. Once Croatia and Slovenia had decided on independence war was inevitable. Bosnia-Herzegovina, the mini-Yugoslavia, would then have to suffer the same fate, partition on ethnic lines. The concept of a multi-ethnic Bosnia could not withstand the compelling logic of ethno-religious fundamentalism. The intervention of the UN ultimately, as it did in Afghanistan, only served to widen and prolong the conflict. While in Afghanistan I was a relief worker, sometimes fighter and photojournalist. In the Balkan peninsula I was a contract soldier for the Croats in various Special groups. I first joined the Croatian War of Independence in 1991 as an international volunteer and was latter promoted to NCO rank while part of Croatian Special Forces. The Croats called us "internationals" evoking images of Orwel and the Spanish Civil War. But for most of the volunteers that came from Western Europe it was not a tradition of international socialism that motivated them. For a few it was quite the opposite view. For the majority it was the need of professional fighting men to engage in war with the only justification that they were fighting an aggressor. We had little in common accept the groups we were eventually to serve in and the tasks and role we performed. I suppose what attracted us first to war in Croatia and then Bosnia was the thought of experiencing or re-experiencing the adventure of war. We are all fiercely individualistic men with only the "art of war" as a common culture and the wish to experience the last true adventure. Ironically we have all heard of Tito and viewed the former Yugoslavia as the stable, successful and acceptable face of State Socialism until Croatia and Slovenia finally seceded from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the 8 October 1991; few of us had visited the region before war broke out. Until recently the world viewed the Serbs singly as the "bad guys" of the set-piece; as we the fighters did in quite simplistic terms to begin with in tune with diplomatic policy of the newly re-unified Germany. Perhaps we were all naive and the Germans were quite simply self-seeking in their foreign policy. I was keen to support the early recognition of the Republic of Croatia as sponsored by German government in the mistaken belief and wish, as it turned out , that this would hasten the end of Serbian aggression in the region and lead to a democratic state in tune with a developing "social" Europe. I now recognise that this policy lead inevitably to the war Bosnia and Herzegovina which I joined in April 1992, just after the EC had accepted the declaration of independence as part of a Croatian Army intervention force strengthening Bosnian Croats defences. As we were withdrawn for political reasons in June 1992 the Bosnian Serbs over ran 70% of the territory of causing an exodus of refugees mainly refugees from predominantly Muslim areas. And the phrase "ethnic cleansing "enter the vocabulary of the international media as the Serbs tries to create their "Greater Serbia". I did not anticipate trouble developing between Croat and Muslim then. After all the Bosnian and Croat Presidents had signed an agreement of friendship and co-operation and there was still Muslims in both the HV & HVO at the time. For me the Yugoslav Civil War was caused by Serbian aggression and territorial ambitions. Yet following the activities of extremist elements in the HVO and HOS militias disillusionment with the Croat cause has spread and even Germany, the main supporter of Croatia, has gone mute recently. The Muslim MOS committed acts of violence against civilians too and there were dissent Muslim who were prepared to fight on the Serb side against the Sarajevo government. The Republic of Croatia did not become the model democracy the international community might have hoped for; although in the year 2000 a Liberal-Socialist alliance was elected but not in Bosnia. Since the Bosnian Croats still want to form their own separatist republic, Herceg-Bosna, with Mostar at her centre. While the Sarajevo government has carved out a "core" Bosnia and wants to broaden the new Muslim-Croat Federation. Territorial concerns have become paramount and the dynamics of group psychology has undermined the sovereignty of the individual; who have become swallowed up in ethno-politico project justified by revisionist history. Each ethno-religious group has come to see itself not only as a political unit worthy of its own state but also as a "nation" with its own history and traditions! A nation is self-defining; its claim verified by ethnic, cultural, social, linguistic, religious, political and historical evidence. Every nation has the inalienable right to full possession of its territory and to maintain its existence as a distinct nation. To avoid the threat of violence: genocide, ethnocide, invasion, colonisation, assimilation or forced migration; all nations should attain full political independence with this status having international recognition and protection. In the light of these considerations I supported Croat aspirations for full independence and recognition by the world community. As part of the Welsh republican movement I advocate a form of "social "nationalism; I regard the ethnic language group as the historic basis for a nation as the natural state, the Republic. This revolutionary position will imply civil war in some instances as the nations raise out of the death of nationalism. Not all nationalism's are exclusive; Welsh social nationalism can accommodate outsiders. In this view the nation is a political community of social communities; derived from a historic ethno-linguistic group. In this sense we in Wales are promoting the concept of an "open" inclusive nationalism as in Nelson Mandela's non-racial South Africa. Nationalism is a modernity project for a people who increasingly value post-materialist aspirations such as social welfare, self-governing society and citizenship. Our republicanism attempts to reconcile both socialism and nationalism; to be a progressive force in human history. I am passionately opposed to the imperialism of British "official" nationalism which is essentially conservative, reactionary and racist. So any people will be confused by my willingness to fight and possibly die or be maimed for a the Croat cause which has been animated by a "closed" nationalist ideology and one which has little in common, any more, with our aspirations in Wales. I hoped that once Croatia had achieved self-government that a government more closely allied to my true politics and that of the rest of Europe would be elected. I believe that self-determination is the right of all peoples and any act to achieve this aim is morally right. That any nation denied the protection of political autonomy and without any other form of redress fully justified in employing any means of self-defence deemed necessary by members of that nation. For nation-states and imperia have historically conspired to deny the existence of minority nations and has used state violence to irradiate the distinct identity of submerged ethnic nations, now it is the economic and cultural imperalism of the process of globalisation driven by asocial market dynamics that is denying a human life and autonmy even to the progressive pro-active world citizen. I regarded the war in the Balkan peninsula as heralding a new world order and despite the inconsistencies, I felt I had to be involved in this historic process that must change the face, form and future of Central Europe. It will hasten the disintegration of the 19th century conservative "neo-unionist" nation-states into republics based on the radical idea of the nation as the natural state. Basically the Croat cause is about self-government and self-determination, it is nationalist in perceptive and ideology but during World War II it has moved to the radical right. A perspective very much alien to the Welsh socialist perspective that I have been raised in and my political aspirations. I have fought in the end for the right of the Croats themselves to choose their own style of government; that is to fight for democracy sometimes you must be prepared to accept the decision of the majority even when you yourself think its wrong; perhaps passionately so. I also had the expectation that a liberal government would eventually be elected in peacetime. What is needed throughout the world is radical change. In Britain this takes the form of constitutional change and the democratic debate that surrounds devolution or quasi-federalism. When I first arrived in Bosnia I was soon involved in clearance operations against outlying Serbian hamlets and Serb parts of towns which were mostly Croat or Muslim (Bugojno and its hinterland villages); at this time I still regarded the conflict simply as self-defence against Serbian aggression not as a means to exchange populations and form homogenous ethnic statelets. The formation of proto-states on ethnic lines eventually became the agenda of all the Yugoslav nationalities. In the twilight spring of 1992 the conflict still had the appearance of self-defence against aggression and we internationals saw the "uneasy" alliance of Croat and Muslim as a permanent feature. Reasoning that the balance of military power had to be maintained. Little did we suspect that a year of inter-alliance fighting was about to break out. Over the coming months some of us joined Muslim groups but most British internationals had been assimilated into Croat society almost effortlessly. For my part I had found a girl I wanted to marry and personal concerns began to out weigh political aspirations. The Bosnians themselves knew what the course of the war would be. The internationals had become to use to the present arrangement of things to anticipate the momentous forces. That were about to partition Bosnia-Herzegovina. Soon British volunteers would find themselves on differing sides in the conflict and engaged in a futile conflict. This period of in-fighting delayed the eventual defeat of Serbian military power until the autumn of 1995. Perhaps with hindsight Bosnia had to be partitioned but the real tragedy is the betrayal of Bosnia by the Western powers who only after the Serbs were forced to agree terms did the UN send troops with an enforcement mandate. Although the "European" Muslims of Central and North Eastern Bosnia may yet be relieved that Islamic fundamentalism has not taken root. There is no such thing as a secular Muslim. And most "Bosnians" are more Yugoslav communists than they are Muslims. Treating such people as a nation on religious grounds is flawed; since many "Muslims" do not believe in Islam at all! That they have become an embattled out-group has done more to establish in them a national identity than any number of foreign or native fundamentalist could. This is the ironic outcome of the conflict. Perhaps even now we have not witnessed the last act of the Bosnian tragedy but we are in the endgame.

Chapter(2): Call To Arms 1985
What first got me involved with thoughts of geopolitics and low-intensity conflicts round the world was a book written by one of Sandy Gall's crew when he went to Afghanistan to film a documentary about the Mujahideen war-lord Ahmad Shah Massoud (now Defence Chief in the deposed regime). On the 1 March 1979 there was a referendum on devolution which could have given some kind of parliament for Wales and also in 1979, December in fact, Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union. In my mind these two events were related by the issue of self-determination. Both were to influence my political development while I took my A levels and began to study an Astrophysics degree at University College Cardiff. While still a student at UCC I founded the Aikido Club and joined 144 Parachute Squadron (Fld Amb), a Territorial Army unit of the RAMC. When in October 1985 I first went to Pakistan with the intention of joining the Mujahideen in their liberation war in the belief that force needed to be used to defend the Afghans right of self-determination . And that events in Afghanistan and the "Red Empire" would effect us all in the West. And that the case for independence for Wales would be influenced by events in far off places. In that the Mujahideen had inspired the public imagination. I made further trips inside war-torn Afghanistan before the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Afghanistan is a land-locked country deeply conservative and made up of disparate ethnic groups, its many communities are patriarchal and mostly agrarian. It is a country with extremes of terrain and culture, situated in the northern temperate zone. I made three trips to the North-East of Afghanistan during 1985-88. The North-East has a remarkably "Alpine" climate. And the region mostly speaks a dialect of Persian Dari. Afghan society is heterogeneous and divided in nature; geography limits communication between one locality and another, and many languages are spoken. Consequently the archetypal Afghan is fiercely independent, individualistic, self-reliant and also parochial in character. He is unquestionably loyal to a friend but an implacable enemy. He emphasises regardless of social status or ethnicity courtesy, hospitality and personal honour. Bravery and physical courage are especially prized personality traits. Afghan share a rare respect for poets, artists and those with musical ability. They have a strong sense of natural justice and are hard physically and is often required to endure serve deprivation, he does without complain. Characteristically his behaviour is unpredictable and likely to vary between opposite extremes, yet he seems well-adjusted to his life-styles. He is intelligent and skilled but also undisciplined and can be arrogant. Without power to wield he is generous to a fault and democratic; with it he is totalitarian and self-obsessed. The Afghans live in tightly knit communities, in the Islamic fashion, that have cultural high inertia; they have proved to be highly resistant to change and outside influences. Islam is not simply a secular religion, but a comprehensive complete, tight, seamless philosophical system that impinges on every aspect of the Afghans daily life: social, political, economic and personal. And as such it is truly totalitarian "world view". Hence it can be viewed as a major competitor to other ideological systems such as those first proposed by Marx, Lenin and Mao. It should be impossible for a devote Muslim to compromise any aspect of his faith. The Afghan is duty, indeed, honour bound to resist any violation of Islam and his land. There are no "European" Muslims, Mushriqin, in Afghanistan! That is lacks Muslims who are not following the tenants of Islam. As in Bosnia we are seeing war-lords breaking the bounds of civil society as the situation decays into banditry and anarchy. With terrible consequences. The Afghan peasant stresses the autonomy of the primary group and consider it to be essential to their traditional way of life. Afghan communities are characteristic by mutual mistrust, reciprocal isolation and competition with neighbouring groups over essential resources such as land, water and livestock. For the Afghan resistance to have become effective militarily it was necessary to change forever the very things the Afghans have been instinctively fighting for: a traditional deeply conservative ethnic and/or tribal order; that was intensely individualistic, parochial and above all fiercely independent. Ironically for the Afghan people to survive a part they must embrace this very change and join the modern world. This is the pressing and lasting effect of the conflict and a factor in its continuance since the Soviet withdrawal. The conflict has produced far-reaching changes in how the Afghans regard themselves and their place within society; the traditional social order and world affairs. Among politically and socially aware Afghans, mostly the young and western style educated, an uneasy but urgent need has been felt to come to terms with the necessary changes; in order to try to control and focus these changes for the common future many Afghans still desire. For the Western viewpoint the situation in Afghanistan looks increasingly discouraging: rivalries between resistance parties led to a new brutal civil war after the Soviets pulled out. And now the former Mujahideen regime has been deposed by the Taleban movement. This would make the emergence of Afghanistan as a genuinely non-aligned and unitary state a remote prospect. Seventeen years of civil war, occupation and superpower intervention has profoundly and irreversibly changed Afghan society at all levels. Afghanistan has been forced into the 20th century and the seeds of a new national identity have been sown, it is yet to be seen if it will have any greater validity in the eyes of the public as has Yugoslav identity. This when the state has traditionally been seen as external to society by Afghans themselves. Whose primary allegiance is still directed at the local community level. The resistance is divided with the likelihood of further in-fighting within the Mujahideen and the pessimistic realisation that the lack of unity, shared objectives and common goals threatens the very continued existence of Afghanistan as a nation-state. As a humanitarian relief worker researching a comprehensive social survey for the British charity, Afghanaid, I returned to Afghanistan during 1987 to travel through five northern provinces during five months. I gained insight into the mind-set of the Afghan. The concept of state to the ordinary Afghan was meaningless before the war. If central government tried to interfere with the rural way of life, officials could always be bribed to keep them out of things. It is only now that they consider themselves to be Afghans rather than Tajiks, Uzbeks, Harazars or Pushtuns. But this new political awareness and sophistication is in danger of not surviving the post-Soviet period of civil war. No new national leader has emerged and the leadership that does exist come from the aristocracy, the intelligentsia, and from the dominant Pushtun families. While I was there it was the Jamiat-i-Islami, the mainly Tajik moderate Islamist party of Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, which was on the ascendancy. The Jamiat is pro-Western, anti-royalist and has the widely respected field commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud, now the Minister of Defence of the former Kabul regime, amongst its number. In utter contrast to the Jamiat's plans for an almost liberal Islamic republic are the policies of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami. This radical Islamist group saw both the Soviets and the West equally as its enemies. In the past both Pakistan and the US gave military and other assistance to this party in preference to the others for strategic rather than ideological reasons. For Pakistan still fears the establishment of a Pushtun homeland of Pushtunistan; an idea originating in Kabul, and Washington will do almost anything to prevent a fundamentalist Islamic republic being established now that the Soviet Union has collapsed and the Red Army fled Afghanistan. Even if this meant aiding the very radicals who are the self-professed enemies of the United States and the West in general. Although Hezb-i-Islami (Hek.) principals of central government and religious affiliation are alien to the traditions of most Afghans; its organisation as a vanguard party is closer to Western political thought than the decentralised form of administration of the Jamiat. Indeed, Afghan loyalties have never been straight forward. Distrust of a strong central government as well as hatred of communism caused the 1978 uprising in the first instance! In my detailed study of North Eastern quarter of Afghanistan I pointed out that Afghan diplomacy is about compromise brought about by war and the threat of war. Afghans see conflict between ethnic, political and community networks as normal and necessary in order to test the fitness of the leader who finally emerges. Much had depended on the ability of political and military leaders to maintain the fragile unity they had during the Soviet occupation. in the North-East the Jamiat has steadily extended its influence from its bases in Badakhshan, Takhar, Kurduz, Kapisa and Herat. This success was due to the unique skills of a former engineering student, Ahmad Shah Massoud, a bold political and military innovator, strategist and tactician whose father had been a general in the Afghan Army. He is well versed in the principles and execution of guerrilla warfare. He was the driving force behind the foundation of the Supervisory Council of the North, which now co-ordinates the strategic and tactical operations of the northern mostly non-Pushtun Mujahideen. Massoud's own operations were extended far from his former Panjsher valley stronghold. Massoud is a charismatic military leader whose political authority within his base area is absolute and his polico-military system has been influential everywhere but in the South where Pushtun tribal jealousy has denied him influence. The region from which the taleban movement took hold. Although he enjoys a great deal of support, it is localised and not the nation-wide support needed of the leader of a future government. Which is why Prof. Rabbani has tried to fill the post of President effectively. In my view only a leader from the North could hope to reconcile the disparate communities of Afghanistan and be acceptable to the international community also. Massoud has consistently emphasised the vital importance of creating greater socio-political cohesion if a free Afghanistan is to be governable. As he himself has said just before the Soviet pull out, "In my view anyone who wants to further divide the Mujahideen commits a great treason. I believe everybody could serve the Jehad within the party to which he belongs.". Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been ruthlessly ambitious extremist; he heads an organisation whose military strategy had been to avoid contact with the communist forces in preparation for the post-war power struggle he then engaged in and lost out to the Pakistan sponsored Taleban. Significantly the Hezb(Hek.) established its presence on the lines of communication of other resistance parties in preference to those of the Soviet backed regime. In order to disrupt Jamiat activities. It was a renegade group of Hekmatyar's men who killed British photojournalist Andy "Popski" Skrzypkowiak near Kantiwar in Nuristan during October 1987. Andy, who was nicknamed "The Pole" by Sany Gall, was a former member of the Parachute regiment and had served with the SAS. Indeed many former British soldiers who had served in elite formations, notably the ex-Royal Marine Ken Guest, were now working as aid workers or as journalists inside war-torn Afghanistan. It was during 1987 that Western journalists and relief workers inside the country suffered their heaviest causalities. A series of mishaps served to high light the bitter feud that is still taking place between moderate and radical elements of the Afghan resistance movement. During the late summer of 1987 a medical team from MSF was held captive but latter released after their money, supplies and equipment had been "confiscated" by Hekmatyar men near Jorm. Then they stole the Panjsher films of Julian Gearing, the Director of the Afghanistan Information Office at the time, in September and in October they attacked the Guilde de Raide team taking their cash-For-Food money. And in November Tony Davies of Asiaweek and an American first-time correspondent and I were held captive near Tupak in West Nuristan also by Hezb (Hek.). While the Italian freelance journalist, Fausto Bilaslavo, was picked up by Regime Forces after becoming separated from us and the others when we approached a disputed village. We gave our equipment and things to a Lapis caravan in an attempt to avoid them falling into the hands of Hekmatyar at the village and this was when Fausto got lost as we crossed the river into the village. I felt terribly guiltly about the circumstances of his loss. We had celebrated his birthday only days before and I had helped him film his video of the family of a notable government defector, Sediqallah was the brother of the then President Naji(-bullah), in a side valley off the Panjsher. But the most controversial incident must still be Popski's murder as he returned from his latest mission to interview Massoud. That the sectarian feud between resistance factions would ultimately result in the untimely death of a dedicated Afghanistan photojournalist who had already done so much to document the "forgotten war" in Afghanistan was a great tragedy and so unjust. Their enmities and bitter struggles spring from the tribal, sub-tribal, national and regional differences which characterise the most underdeveloped societies and are a throw back to a past all of us understand. And are now witnessing in the Balkans. It is a matter of concern that resistance leaders have failed to unite and that a new movement has come on the scene further complicated the picture and prospects for peace in this divided country. The ancient Arab-Persian language antagonism has been further intensified by 18 years of brutal civil war. Hekmatyar's jealous envy of the reputation of the Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan and in particular of Massoud and his senior commanders caused him to instigate a ruthless campaign to curtail humanitarian aid reaching Massoud's area of influence. The direct consequences of this was the death of Mr Skrzypokowiak while he slept. Andy had been a good friend of Massoud; so his murder greatly increased the friction between the various resistance factions. Discontent and discord has became the norm fractional clashes continued. We have witnessed another "undeclared" civil war and because of this fractional rivalry there has been little cause for optimism. Indeed there has been a return to the chronic anarchy of historical Afghan society and the likely scenario is further schism. Andy leaves behind his widow, Cardiff based photojournalist Christine Gregory, and his infant daughter Shanoor. He will be remembered for his extreme professionalism, dedication to the cause of a free Afghanistan and his selfless courage in adversity. The leadership of the former Mujahideen alliance regime in Kabul was deposed by the new Taleban movement. The Taleban - the name means "student" - emerged from the Islamic schools, the Madrassas, in the refugee camps in Pakistan. Its stunning military advance started in 1994. Burhanuddin Rabbani, the President, wasousted as was Ahmad Shah Massoud, his Defence Chief. Along with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Prime Minster, they have all were sentenced to death by the Taleban. The bodies of Muhammad Najibullah, the former President who led a Russian backed government, and his brother Ahmadzai, were found hanging from the Presidential Palace. Ahmadzai had only just arrived from his home in Germany and was trapped by the suddenness of the Taleban advance. The new Taleban regime imposed the strictest interpretation of Sharia (Islamic Law) on the people of Kabul, a traditionally liberal city and the ultra-conservative rules will come hard. After "9/11" the only conceivable force which could take on the Taliban remained the Northern Alliance forces. Which was essentially the same group that while commanded by Massoud was chased out of Kabul in 1996. Massoud lead the defence of the Panjsher valley and was the legendary "Sher-i-Panjsher" and the corruption and great incompetence of the post-1992 years were never levelled at Massoud the "Afghan Castro". General Ahmed Shah Massoud was assassinated three days before the al-Qa'eda attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th 2001.

Chapter(3): Croatia Odyssey 1991
It was in late December 1991 that I decided to leave my security job in Cardiff and to try and join other international volunteers fighting the Croat War of Independence. I bought a one-way Eurolines ticket to Munich and there on to return ticket to Zagreb, the Hasburg capital of Croatia. My only plan was to arrive in the war zone, the old military frontier, and present myself. I had no idea how I was going to "join up" until the last minute when I saw an article in the Sun newspaper about a young lad who had been a volunteer previously. So I then new enough to contact the local police on arrival and make my intentions known. When I first stepped on to the platform of the Zagreb central railway station I immediately stopped a military policeman who was returning to his posting in the industrial town of Sisak. We had a soft drink together in the shopping precinct below the station and he agreed to take me to Sisak. And to find me a place in the ZNG(HV). To cut along story short I was interviewed by his boss who had me driven to a house on one of the front-lines where to other English speaking volunteers were. One was "Rose", his nickname was derived from the rock band Guns and Roses, an ex-Guardsman and "Skippy" an Australian who may have served with their version of the SAS. Rose took me up the short distance to the bunkers of the front-line all was very quiet and a ceasefire holding. I did not believe that this was the real war, not realising how static the front-lines had become since the late summer of 1991. I spent the festive holiday with them but in the New Year decided to seek out the "International Brigade" of newspaper myth. I returned to Zagreb after getting some paper work sorted out in Sisak. I then went to the Central Pay Office to have myself transferred to another front. I stayed for a couple of days in Petrusevac the barracks of 2 brigada which was on the out skirts of Zagreb. There I met a New Zealander who helped me get kited out and I reciprocated by giving him some pocket money and my return ticket to Munich. He was in a bad way and I did not think he was suited to service in a war zone. Although he had been at Vinkovci and had some story about his section being wiped out when the house they were shacked up in was hit by a shell. I don't know how true it was but I needed the man's local knowledge any way. I was able to meet up with the then Minister of Defence and be transferred to 110 Brigada in Karlovac. I decided on this destination because I had met an Australian of Croatian descent in a restaurant near the “blue” cinema. At this time I met my first real friend in Croatia. In Bob's club I met a scout in my brigade who has become my closest Croat friend. Late at night after a day of drinking all over the centre of Zagreb in this cafe and that bar or other; then I had to find a club as the cafe bars were closing. Bob's club was then the haunt of all kinds of wild men. I was downing bottled light beers at the bar and trying to make contact with other foreigners. There was the crazy Swede called the Viking who was trying to recruit me; he already had a number of Irish republicans. And a Croat who said he was from a special unit. When I found his suggestion amusing he took a grenade out of his pocket and pulled the pin out showed it to me and put it back in. I thought crazy bastard and wandered off to chat up some girl who was still in some corner. When I came back for some more beers I met Stanjko “Bobby” Robert who realised I was British immediately by my accent and pigeon Serbo-Croat. He introduced himself and quickly reassured me that although he was a scout he was not into street theatre. If I wanted to stay in Zagreb I could stay with his family. We often played pool together there after. He was latter to join the Military Police, found that to be a fruitless period, so joined the Zagreb Tigers and served in Dubrovnik. His personal story is quite tragic but more of that latter. I was latter to hear that “Rose” and “Skippy” had gone to fight in Croat forces in Mostar where “Rose” was wounded in 1993 by a Serb sniper. The last I have heard of them is that they went to London to sell their stories; I don't know if the return to the war zone again. The town of Karlovac which is, like Sisak, on the old military frontier and only an hour from the centre of Zagreb. Karlovac is infamous for its light beers and because the old town was a frontier fort in the time of the Ottoman Empire. I joined up with 110 brigarda on the 5 January 1992 and was to serve there for the next 4 months as a private in the international section of the regular army there. I made a point of being issued an HV I.D. quickly as not to lose any pay. The section was lead by a German NCO called Frank, he was a former Engineer, who spoke good English. But it was the intention of the British soldiers already there to make Roger, a former member of the Glorious Glousters, the boss. Roger was a big but charming bastard. He was a sound soldier and the NCO-type and one of the "old hands". He was one of the first internationals to arrive at Karlovac. I had arrived at a time when tensions between various fractions within the section were raising rapidly and coming to a show down. “Mik” the Australian best friend “Jeff” (Paul) was beginning to drive him mad. Jeff was a former Royal Green Jacket but was drinking very heavily highly strung and always looking for trouble. And was probably suffering from combat stress. There was a Hungarian soldier who had served in a pioneer battalion; he shortly transferred himself to Osijek. And there was Florent Sene, Frenchie (Francuz), a former clerk with French Airborne Forces during his national service. And last but not least was Dianijel Skorup, Danny, a Canadian of Croatian descent from Toronto; he had some disagreement in Kumrovec as Bojna Frankopan was being trained and so had come to Karlovac to cause trouble instead. The whole unit had been withdrawn from the front-line for a period of R&R. Frank and Roger devised an ad hoc training programme to keep us busy in an attempt to stop further trouble developing as the unit was on the verge of civil war. Indeed for a while things were relatively quite and uneventful until two other Brits arrived to complicate the picture. Alan and Ian turned up just as a freelance journalist, Alastair Sinclair, was leaving. He brought with him the rumour that a “Welshie” had killed a freelancer near Vinkovci. Latter a former member of the Royal Regiment of Wales was reported dead because his ID card turned up on a body. He reappeared as a member of 108th brigarda fighting for the Brcko corridor. Their arrival triggered a three way struggle for power and position in the unit. Ian was a former Para-commando with the Royal Artillery and Allan a former Commando and son of a former commando who wanted to serve with the SAS and who had already fought as a mercenary in Belize and Surinam. But by the time Ken Guest came to Karlovac and Bolin barracks to make his documentary the situation had resolved itself just in time for the show to start in Bosnia. Mr Guest was a press veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan and a former Royal Marine. Alan and Ian had tried to push me out of the unit but I was having none of it. They finally left for pasture new. Ian went to Zadar found a girl he eventually made pregnant and served with another Welshman, Justin, from Pontypridd. And Alan returned to Karlovac about a month latter. By then the section had been split up and Roger and Paul joined another Diverzant (Diversion) squad; while Frank, Fran and I stayed in our original unit. Frank decided to go home on leave but took "Blackie", his Folding stock FAL FN, with him so was arrested in Germany. Two French soldiers had joined us for a few weeks just before Frank left and did not return. They had decided to experience Croatia while on leave. It gave Frank someone to play with and keep our little group up to strength a little longer. The latter joined up at Brcko. Ken Guest brought with him two other former Royal Marines to make a documentary about British mercenaries fighting in Croatia. His helpers had wanted to break into freelance journalism. They had already spent about a month in Croatia with a hired video camera but had not sold their film yet. But Ken was keen to bring them along to teach them the tricks of the trade and get them started in the business. Ken was supposedly making a film for Thames television, a company that was about to be disbanded. He fact the video was shown on the BBC. I believe this was one of Ken's little schemes. in as much as he known that if he had the backing of a major Television company , then he would have little trouble getting access to his story. His work was shown during the autumn of 1992. I was described as an "ideological mercenary" which I assumed meant "politically-motivated" terrorist until then. The flames of war were spreading to Bosnia-Herzegovina so most of us who were going to stay in the Balkans made plans to go there. All was very quite in Croatia any way. Mik had had enough of Paul's wild behaviour and returned to Australia. Fran and I rotated through the frontlines alternately to Roger and Paul waiting for our pay to arrive. There was always some minor Cheknik activity on the line and we internationals tended to find something to do but after Croatia had gained her independence on 15th January 1992 things stabilised. During the many centuries of constant war the inhabitants of the military frontier developed deep rooted feelings of insecurity, distrust, hopelessness and fear that bread hatred toward their neighbours and inclined them towards violent methods to solve problems that would become a historical legacy for the region. We were all still hungry for further action and although we were all offered permanent jobs in the Croatia Army; we all made our plans to join the Bosnians. I personally knew precious little about the region. And was even planing to join the Muslims but events took their course and I ended up in a Bosnian Croat town in Herzegovina. As the Serb-Croat war went on hold I made arrangements to be discharged and to go with some Bosnian friends in service with the HV to go and fight in BiH(Bosnia-Herzegovina). These none observant Muslims lived in the Livno-Tomislavgrad zone so Fran And I had planned to go with them to Livno. Just as violence exploded in to vicious and deadly inter-ethnic strife and civil war.

Chapter(4): Bosnia Spring 1992
Croatia was again a sovereign state after a thousand years. Its people had managed to retain their distinct national identity despite centuries under Hungarian and Hasburg rule and despite the separation of the military frontier under Venetian and Turkish conquest and further territorial fragmentation. After leaving 110 brigada in Karlovac during the second week of April 1992 I journeyed with Fran, my best friend from the town, to Tomislavgrad with the intention of joining a front-line unit resisting Serb aggression there. We knew the war in the region was going to be particularly savage because of the multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-confessional structure of the republic and because of antagonisms that had been formed on this base over the many centuries. From HTV (Croatia Television) reports we believed that things were hoting up in "Bosnia". Kupres had fallen to advancing Serbs only days before we had arrived. Tomislavgrad, renamed Duvno under Tito, had been the birthplace of the great Croat King, Tomislav. Fran and I headed for the town over land via the Adriatic port of Split. We had stayed over night in a Marine base and then joined a group of soldiers returning from leave who had been in barracks across the border in Sanj. It was the first time I had seen the rugged and bleak beauty of Bosnia. Just before Livno there is a very large lake and I was thinking of the time I had spent in Switzerland near Interlaken while still a teenager. But there was hardly a tree insight which made me think of Afghanistan. I had very positive feelings about the place. Little did I suspect then what might happen to those in the anti-Serb alliance. So it seemed natural for us both to seek out the HVO the Bosnian Croat version of the HV for purely pragmatic considerations nothing In fact to do with political affiliation or sympathy. But while there was an alliance of Croat and Muslim to defend against Serbian aggression I felt justified in seeking out the best equipped and paid unit we could find. Although I had not got to know the various communities I assumed I would prefer the Croats based on my experiences with their brethren in the Republic of Croatia. Of course we sought out the best positions for ourselves we could. Immediately on arriving in Tomislavgrad we were taken to see the then Zone Commander who we knew by his nickname "Tot" and we were about to meet infamous "Zulu". Both were Croats who had joined the French Foreign Legion risen to NCO rank over 17 years or so , fought in the Gulf War and now returned to fight with their kin against superior Serbian forces. My French is non-existent so Fran had to do all the talking for a change. And I was forced to let Fran translate for me. Florent turned out to be a fickle friend because he was about to be told that Alan Bordel and Paul, both of whom I did not get along with, had also come to the same place we were about to go! Tot asked us about our military backgrounds. He wanted to know what training and experience we had. Fran spoke about his year with French Airborne forces during his national service and said he had been in Belfast during the troubles and travelled in Africa. I told him that I had been a medic in the TAVR as part of British Airborne forces. And that I had been with the Mujahideen during the recent troubles in Afghanistan and “cut my teeth there”. We then showed him our discharge papers from our national armies and from 110 brigada. He seemed satisfied with our credentials and keen to discover if we knew how to operate wire-guided anti-tank missiles. Although both of us had some simulator time while in Karlovac on the Yugoslav "Malijka" we knew we were not the specialists he was looking for. I said I understood the vital role anti-tank teams would play in the defence of the zone but said we were basically quality infantry not anti-tank specialist. He asked us if we knew about the fall of Kupres, which we did. He seemed reassured that we knew what we might be getting ourselves into. Tot then drove us personally to the front-line at Suica("Shooitsa") which was them about 3km from the Serb front-line. Suica is a small village off the main Tomislavgrad-Kupres-Bugojno highway. With its own distinctive church and a factory complex in the valley. Here were units from Bojna Frankopan-Zrinski the Special Forces group of the HV. This had been featured in the Croat Army magazine only recently and in the International Raids magazine. Fran and I had gone to Zagreb trying to be transferred to a special unit. And ironically on another day Fran had gone alone to join the "Green Berets" but returned without telling me where he had been. The unit had been named after to prominent Croat national heroes. The absolutistic power of the Hasburgs inspired the resistance of the Croat-Hungarian nobility under the leadership of Nikola Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan. By executing Zrinski and Frankopan, who were representatives of the strongest Croatian nobility, in Wiener Neustadt in 1671, Vienna strengthened its power in Croatia. The pair are still remembered as exponents of greater Croatian independence. The Croat Army "Green Berets" was conceived as an Legion-style commando. Was well equipped with small arms of all kinds and had the best uniforms and personal equipment I had yet seen before the Croat Army was reorganised prior to the end of the UN mandate in Croatia in 1995. When we decided on Tomislavgrad as our finally destination we did not realise that Suica was being shown on television not Tomislavgrad itself proper. During the car journey Tot said something to Fran that made me laugh out loud. I knew Alan might be in the area but what made me laugh was I thought Tot had said there was no brothel in the village. In fact he was telling us about how disorganised things were and/or that Allan Bordel and his father Gus were in the village. I knew about Allan but hadn't met Gus Bordel by then. Ironically despite the fact he kept calling me “Tav” we got on very well. Every Welshman in the British Army seems to get called Taffy or Taff rather than “Welshie”; so I gave up in the end trying to have him use my first name. At the time I thought Bordel was French for brothel or chaos I was not sure. “Tot” spoke no English but “Zulu” knew a little; enough if fact to keep calling me "Roast Beef" again with total disregard of my pride in being my own man and a Welshman not English. But I grew to like him also. I thought I understood the kind of man who seeks adventure through in an elite intervention force as a military career. My Hrvatski was improving quite quickly and the following year I could finally hold a conversation with “the best infantry officer and Commanding Officer I could hope for”; a professional from the Foreign Legion. Once in the village we were given rooms in one of the villagers homes. Pero had a detached bungalow about 500m to the left of a steep escarpment which over looked the village and shielded it from direct shelling or view by the enemy. Pero was one of the few villagers still there and under arms. I latter gave him some ammunition and equipment, as all he seemed to have was a few magazines and a Romanski (Romanian Kalashnikov). He was the first local I befriended. I gained a favourable impression from him of the local people and their intent. Despite the obvious fact that so many had left it to strangers and foreigners to do the fighting for their homes, and homeland for them. But I so softened this view when I realised that most of those still in Bojna Frankopan or other units in the Suica area were locals and that our commander was in charge of the whole Zone and could deploy his forces as he saw fit! The very next morning Fran and I were taken to the HQ building just as Chris Wilson and “Phil” were unloading a great mass of kit, from a land cruiser. We to had brought every thing we could carry under the assumption that the local forces would be ill-equipped and unprepared for the job at hand. As it turned out Chris had also been in Sisak leading a raids and reconnaissance group. Becoming quite notorious in the process. It was at this time that we were all first introduced to Zulu (Bruno Zorica), then only a Captain, while in the Legion he met and married a Spanish girl who was now in Zagreb. Our new unit was based in Kumrovec, the birthplace of Tito, so our magazine consisted little more than a store for kit left by men who voluntarily discharged themselves so they could go and fight for their homes. Fran and I had been issued extra kit in Karlovac on the way out and Chris and Phil had brought their own stuff too, which was just as well. All there was spare for us to divide up was a few 7.62mm FAL's and one kit bag of American uniforms. I was happy with my Kalashnikov, since it could fire rifle-grenades and there was no shortage of ammunition, while Fran being the debonair Frenchmen wanted a flash uniform and the FAL as a status symbol. I was more interested in promotion and a job in a scout section because of the greater prospect of more frequent and effective action at crucial time. If I was going to join the scouts I would be better off being armed as they were and having the extra 10 rounds that a Kalashnikov magazine holds. In a scrap this could prove decisive and even life saving; I thought. Chris and Phil had brought no rifles with them so they got Argentina folding-stock FALs. Being former soldiers in the British Army both were quite at home with them as the issue weapon before the SA80 was the 7.62mm SLR a variant of the Belgian FN also made under licence. Initially Fran and I we assigned the same section, Zeta, and placed there after in a house with the rest of our section. While Chris and Fran remained in our original billet. We had a couple of days breathing space before our first action. This was fortunate because it gave us time to get to know each other properly. I took an instant liking to Chris. He was then in his early 30s after spending 11 years in the Army, leaving as a REEC light tank commander. Phil had been a former member of the RCT (TAVR) and very lucky to meet Chris other wise he would not of been allowed to join the HV so late in 1992. Chris was a typical “squaddie” in appearance. He had brought with him his own uniform and the short of kit all professional soldiers buy during their long service. He displayed the compulsory moustache and military haircut. Which in his case was just as well as his hair was thinning. He was fit for his age, tanned and he looked the part down to his boots. He also sounded like a professional. I probably had come across as a wild Celt seeking out further misadventures. In fact I saw myself as a swash-buckling soldier of mis-fortune. And I knew I had found just the place where I could pursue such an agenda. Then with out any warning we were scrambled and thrown into heavy lorries and bussed one afternoon to the front-line. Not to be used in our role but as plain infantry filling a rotor. We did not like that at all but for the time being there was nothing we could do about it. We then spent an appalling 24 hours in serve weather conditions under light enemy mortar and small arms fire tasked with simply holding the line. although we were there as an intervention force and a 'fire-fighter' brigade so this was not the purpose for which the unit was trained and raised. None of us were happy with this situation. After near mutiny the unit role was more clearly defined and asserted. We were never again used in this manner and things became both easier and more interesting for us. I was keen to go on long-range patrols. After the fall of Kupres every one expected an imminent attack on our positions from a Serb armoured column supported by infantry of similar quality to our selves. After all we were then very next village down the motorway from the last Serb position. For the next week or so we are busied ourselves in diversionary patrolling and raids all along our lines as we dug-in. More internationals began joining us from ironically Karlovac. Although they had spent some time in Zadar. About this time our section commander was killed with a pistol one drunken night of beer and cards. Such occurrences were not uncommon. The most common causes of death or injury in war are in descending order were car crashes, mines, snipers, shells, friendly fire and accidents; and finally contact with the enemy. as summer approached the Serb offensive still had not come but we were shelled from close range from a nearby hamlet most days. And less frequently the line was raided by opportunist Serbs. Fran and I had quite a bit of free time so we helped Angle, a former Spainish legionnaire, mine the road in front of Suica and emplace anti-tank mines strategically to force enemy armour into prepared killing zones. Much latter other defences were constructed just behind the villages on the road to Tomislavgrad by other units in the HVO. By the start of May 1992 we had dug-in all along the front and were in confident mood. Chris and Phil had gone further into central Bosnia to raise a new Diverzant unit and we lost touch for a couple a months but we would meet again. Although we had been together only a short time we were good friends by then. Chris Wilson had Welsh connections and although he regarded himself as English I found him to have Celtic attitudes to life and the adventure of war. Of all the fellow internationals I found him the most agreeable. My friendship with Fran not withstanding. His confident professionalism impressed me and his good humour. About this time a large raid by most of Frankopan and other units was planned. Fran and I were assigned to a group of Zagreb Tigers, who themselves were brought up to strength by members of HOS, as liaison. Fran spoke French so could be used to co-ordinate the action of this group with all the others. And for this purpose we took a motor-roller. This small raiding parting was then linked up with our Malijka team. Our task was simply enough. We were required to knock out a tank known to be operating from the nearby Hamlet of Donj Malovan. It was from this position that we had been shelled for most of the previous month. Fran had been on guard duty when a salvo fired from this tank landed near him and another shell hit the house where another French volunteer, Nick, was living in but there were no causalities. In fact the Serbs kept to a pattern and shelled us most afternoons only. We would watch videos or play football not taking much interest in the in-coming shells until they were with a few hundred meters or so. Then we took cover and resumed what ever we doing again. We never did loose a man in the shelling and did not expect to either. Although after Nick house had been destroyed and Fran also had such a near miss we were more careful. Fran told me his story. He had heard the sound of the in-coming shells and taken cover in a doorway next to his guard barrier as the rained down in front of him. Exploding with a flash and a bang that nearly burst his eardrums. As he realised he was unhurt the last of the salvo hit Nick's house bring down the roof. Amazingly Nick had been a sleep in an upstairs room, yet he emerged unharmed with his inane grin and sardonic humour. I found Fran to be more distant in his manner since we had arrived at Suica. But this mattered little because there we a number of Croats who spoke good English which I was busy befriending. And in particular there was a forty year-old Canadian of Croat descent. Davor Glasnovic was a twin. His brother was previously the Tomislavgrad zone commander until he was wounded and Tot took over. His twin bother was then in Split recovering and would return to the war latter. I spent a lot of time with Davor in Tomislavgrad. He was well received everywhere we went and always they mistaked him for his brother Zelijko. Zelijko was regarded as quite the local hero. When I asked him what his name was he replied any old Joe; as in GI Joe the actionman doll. And would say goodbye or goodnight by saying "happy trails". So I used to call him "Happy Trails" Joe. His job in the unit was as a RPG specialist Where ever we went in town we had to disappoint the locals who thought "Joe" had returned from hospital. There was an air of expectancy when they saw Joe. They got used to dynamic duo in the end though! Joe was assigned to a group of the HOS militia and I initially tried to go on his mission. But was ordered to go with my buddy and not knowing what the complete plan was did not argue. Action is action; I thought. Zrinski and Frankopan's scout groups were sent on mission and Paul and Alan joined a group from the Vukovar brigada. The operation was going to have a 24-hour timescale and we were going out in the afternoon and would reach our objectives by dawn. The attack was to be a along the Serb line and to commence at first light. Fran, the Malijka group and I had a lot of kit to carry and so we could not take with us much in the way of sleeping bags or warm clothing. So we all had a cold night on the mountains. We tried to sleep in the woods but this proved very difficult since I only had a combat jacket and issue poncho with me; and the “monster” mosquitoes. Chapter(5): Doomesday Endgame Muslim forces, the BiH Armija and the 'Mujahideen', engaged in a campaign in Central Bosnia to wrest control of territory the Croats had been granted under the Vance-Owen Plan and were intending to include this territory in their mini-state Herceg-Bosna. Travnik fell to Muslim forces during April 1993 and the Croats in Vitez were quickly surrounded. Forming the first Croat only enclave. The sheer madness of the Croat on Prozor caused the demise of the first Muslim-Croat alliance in BiH; madness because both sides had a tactical community of interests that should have over-ridden strategic aims and concerns and been apart from the problems of merely local clashes and power struggles; at least until the Serbs had been beaten militarily. Up to April 1993 the Muslims had refrained from systematic acts of ethnic cleansing because either they lacked the strength militarily or realised it must hasten the end of the Bosnian multi-ethnic republic. That element of self-restraint disappeared in the necessity for self-defence against Serb aggression and territorial gains. Serbian pressure forced Muslims to carve out of Bosnia what territory they could. For a time the Muslim seemed to have lost their belief in a multi-ethnic existence and Muslim atrocities we seen on a larger scale. The horrors of regressive social responses became so endemic in most areas that the UN even threatened to withdraw its forces and end its commitment in the region. The Muslim-led Bosnian government recognised that there would be no military intervention by the West in its support and that the UN had even had a plan to implement a total withdraw of all its forces. So from 15th April 1993 to 1st March 1994 the Sarajevo government instigated a "Doomesday Scenario". This attempted to carve out a minimal 'core' Bosnia based around Travnik, Zenica, the Tuzla pocket and included Sarajevo. At Zenica there is the largest steel works in the Balkans and two railheads and Travnik was before the war a major tourist centre. While Sarajevo of course is the seat of the Bosnian government, such that it is, Capital of the former republic and a centre of culture. And Tuzla is an industrial area with many mines. The rest of Muslim territory was quite simply to be abandoned to the Serbs who then controlled about 70% of the land and had vitally won their war to partition Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to build a Greater Serbia; and place all Serbs in one large ethnically 'pure' state. This plan was a consequence of UN intransigence, recognising as it did that the West was not going to be compelled to act by public opinion and intervene militarily. But in fact this change in Muslim strategy forced the west to re-consider its position and contemplate a new UN mandate allowing for peace-enforcement. The UN recognised that the former Yugoslavia would descend into another round of anarchy and civil war if nothing was done or changed with regard to UN forces on the ground. Yet despite the fact that change in the UN was in the wind, Muslim fundamentalists enjoined in their own round of ethnic cleansing in Central Bosnia as part of their own barbaric campaign in reaction to their fear of the quite real possibility of being dispersed and ending their days in impoverished enclaves and crowded refuge camps. There was intense fighting around Vitez and Gornij Vakuf after the fall of Travnik and the Muslim-led government offensive. Initially the HVO controlled nearly 20% of the republic's land by the end of the Muslim offensive it controlled only 9% and the Sarajevo controlled about half the land allotted to the Croats under the now defunct Vance-Owen Plan for Bosnia. During January 1994 there was again fierce fighting between Croat and Muslim only 7km from Prozor. Prozor is just south of the former Muslim-Croat confrontation line. Which means Gornij Vakuf lines in a Muslim controlled are and as a consequence has been partitioned. The Croat part of the town has been re-named and the local people now live polarised life-styles. And as the first Muslim-Croat war drew to an end the new HVO commander was a HV appointee, Lieutenant-General Ante Roso who had previously been my boss as the commander of the HV Special Forces group. Few could have foreseen the brutality that the Yugoslavs would inflict on each other. The increase in barbaric excesses in the Balkans has inherent causes but western involvement has also been crucial.

Chapter(6): Herceg - Bosna
Balkan nationalists, Serb and Croat, have placed a priority on the independence of their own suppressed, and sometimes oppressed, nation above all other political considerations. Self-determination and ethnic criteria were used in determining frontiers. This is essentially the modern ideology of nationalism fused with another more reactionary agenda based in revisionist history. In this regard its has been the Serbs who have offended most by indulging their own repressed, atavistic, traditional tribal urges. They instigated the policy of "ethnic cleansing" and started the war in Bosnia as a Serbian quest for territory and an ethnically exclusive state, the "Greater Serbia". They sought to justify as Serb self-determination and “secession”. Since the joint Croat-Muslim offensive last autumn the tables have been turned on the Bosnian Serbs. The war has come to a just end and "Greater Serbia" crippled; while territory outside Serbia itself have been amputated. The Bosnian Serbs were forced to agree terms. But if the warring factions are to agree to a permanent peace the social and psychological distances between them most be closed. Durable peace and stability in the Balkans can only occur if the populations on the confrontation lines begin to intermix and blend once more. The bonds broken in the population transfers and territorial division must be restored where the various ethnic communities touch. And the few tenuous inter-elite and inter-ethnic bonds that have out lived the conflict must be cultivated. There is no shared ideology or mutual affinity any longer so it will be economic necessitate that will eventually render ethnic fiefdoms unviable as political entities in the long - term. And end the self-fulfilling prophesy - that the various different ethno-religious communities cannot coexist with each other. Already we are witnessing this process as IFOR supervises co-operation over the restoration of basic amenities and utilities. It is not possible to divide power and water on ethnic lines and IFOR has no need to do so. And since communications are so poor in Bosnia it is necessary that the warring factions co-operate if humanitarian aid is to be distributed. Also the provisions of the Dayton accord or quite strict and comprehensive; directed at restoring civil order and promoting the democratic process but also sought to maintain a unitary “Bosnia”. The Bosnian Serbs are isolated politically and have neither the men or the arms to restart the war against the Muslim-Croat alliance. So the real danger to peace in the region is Muslim- Croat relations. Conservative and religiously based nationalism have replaced the admittedly shallow Yugoslav cosmopolitanism. And near genocidal brutalities have been committed. It will be difficult to create an alternative community based on democracy, social justice and co-operation. The biggest obstacle to a durable peace is the xenophobic nationalism of the Bosnian Croat who have been traditionally more extreme than their brothers in the Republic of Croatia. They have demonstrated an absolute devotion to self-determination, a fundamental human right, but have expressed this desire in the form of an unacceptable elite-led socially closed "pathological" nationalism. A view more in common with the nation-state imperialism of the 19th century than of the progressive social democracies of the 20th. Western Hercegovina, what the Croats call Herceg-Bosna, is now a Croatian canton within the Muslim-lead Bosnian republic. The proclamation of the Muslim-Croat federation came close to provoking another armed rebellion by the Bosnian Croats; because Medjugorie, the Catholic place of pilgrimage near Mostar, and Mostar its self were included in a Bosnian Muslim canton rather than a Croatian one. The in fighting during 1993/4 demonstrates clearly that the Hercegovinian Croats consider Mostar inalienably theirs. The Bosnian Croats have continued to carve out their own mini-state in BiH territory even while part of the Federation. For the Bosnian Croat the real virtue of the Federation rests in the opportunity it has created for the final annexation of a part of Bosnia by Croatia. This would leave a rump-Bosnia as a homogenous Muslim state. Presently Muslims and Croats have formed an uneasy alliance for instrumental reasons as a federation and then confederated that state with the Republic of Croatia. This is a stable arrangement as least for as long as there are Western military forces policing the cease-fire. But in the long-term it is necessary to examine the possibility of further in fighting between the Muslims, Bosnian federalists, and the Bosnian Croats, separatists. Whereas the Croats are willing, even keen to accommodate the Serbs in the new order; both the Serbs and the Croats feel no affinity for the Muslims. Who still cling to the dream of Bosnian unity in the face of political reality. The Bosnian Croats have not dissolved their separatist "republic" of Herceg-Bosna, which they are required to do under the Dayton agreement; weakening the Muslim-Croat Federation. Although the recent arms control agreement will substantially reduce the danger of further ethno-political war in the region this winter. Since the bifurcation of Bosnia-Hercegovina (BiH) into the Muslim-Croat federal entity, and a separate Serbian entity, Republika Srpska. Bosnia has been partitioned into ethno-religious entities with increased psychological distance. The prevailing psychological climate of reciprocal mistrust and fear can only have confirmed the "self-fulfilling prophesy" of a not entirely regressive revisionist history. A situation ultimately derived from trans-generational socialisation of negative stereotypes regarding the history and behaviour of the other ethno-religious groups. There is a danger of interethnic animosities re-creating a complex pattern of ethno-religious and political violence, with its potential for further atrocities against the civilian population, now or to familiar in the region. After the Croat-Muslim schism of April 1993 and the Croat-Muslim rapprochement of March 1994; we may now be entering the final act of the Balkan tragedy. The balance of military power, "balance off fear", post-Dayton will decide the eventual out come of this brutal Homeric war. But each Balkan mini-state, para-states conceived on "ethnic" rather than "civic" lines, will now try to develop, both economically and politically within their own patterns in pursuit of their own reciprocally exclusive aspirations and concerns. Especially now we should try to exercise what influence we have to end the tragedic inevitability of the Balkan drama. The fledgling Balkan successor states are derived, with perhaps the exception of the "core" Bosnia, from xenophobic "pathological" nationalism. Elite-led ethnic proto-democracies are being created on the Western model. Still widely divergent results may flow from the geo-political endgame in the Balkans and the horrifying legacy of a disrupted economic and social order, the responsibilities of the international community have not ended! The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia occurred just as the Cold War was drawing to an end but before mechanisms for conflict management had been established to deal with a crisis of such proportions. Consequently the response of both the international community and multi-lateral organisations to the break-up of the Yugoslav federation were hastily contrived, incoherent, and frequently lacked a sophisticated grasp of the region's ethno-political complexity. The absence of an established international security force, and political differences among members of the international community regarding how to resolve such a crisis, hampered both peace-making and peace keeping efforts. The situation remains quite delicate in a region of ethno-religious complexity and reciprocal mistrust. What is needed is the construction of radically new "security architecture" for the Post-Cold War Period. Military enforcement must be a viable option and preventive action. What is required is not an ad hoc NATO force in such situations but a small highly trained and motivated, fully professional force of international volunteers prepared to fight in any theatre of war on the globe. Such a force was first proposed by Sir Antony Parsons and could be used as a trip-wire before fighting starts. Preventative action of this kind would save many lives and end the paralysis that the UN has suffered from since the end of the both Cold and the Gulf Wars. The re-emergence not simply of old Balkan conflicts but of the local and more international alliances and strategies implies considerable danger for the stability of the region. Events in Bosnia must make us all fearful of the consequences of transformation of the established global political order. And yet an essential right; that of self-government must be basic, fundamental, to an enlightened world order. The repression of this inalienable right will tend to lead to dramatic upsurge in politically motivated violence; that is national-separatist and secessionist sub-state terrorism or civil war; perhaps again on our own doorstep here in Europe.

Chapter(7):"Dobro Jutro Federaticija"
Early in August 1995 I returned to the conflict in the Balkans despite still suffering from the trauma of my previous war experiences. My old team Alpha Force was then to be found in Kupres, Central Bosnia. Kupres had only recently fallen and been liberated by a joint Muslim-Croat offensive. It was the town that fell to the Serbs in April 1992 which persuaded the “internationals” to leave Croatia and fight in Bosnia. I knew another major action was in the wings; perhaps the last of the war. I would be in on the endgame in Bosnia. I got off the coach service from Split in Gornij Vakuf to find the town totally devastated by in-fighting within the alliance during 1993/4. I was shocked to find no HVO barracks in town. I soon discovered what the new arrangements were and found my bearings by seeking out old acquaintances in the Croatian cafes. Branchulo's had been rebuild and Heroj had established one of his own too. The Catholic Church had been rebuild by UNPROFOR. Novi MUP was now fully refurbished and operational as a civil police station by Croats. The town had become polarised along ethnic lines, with the Croat part being called Uskoplje. Hearing of the new military co-operation I felt I had cause to be optimistic about Muslim-Croat relations. That night I was taken to a local disco and got very drunk before heading directly for our base in Kupres the following morning. I had a local bar-tender drive me there. We had to negotiate Bugojno, now in Muslim hands, and race in front of Demirovac, a Serb held mountain range, before we could reach the safety of Kupres. Which we did without incident. As we drew up in front of a block of flats I saw my commanding officer, Josip Zeko, for the first time in two years. He greeted me as if we had not been apart at all. The had been great changes in the organisation of our professional brigade. Many of the men I had known were now dead or retired from active service. Over half the strength of Alpha was now "new boys" who had not experienced the intense actions we had previously during the first days of the war but they had taken Kupres. Most of the young men now serving would have been in school when I first joined Croat forces in Bosnia during the Spring of 1992. My first task was to get to know the new members of the team before we went head long into action. Fortunately we had a light few weeks to adjust to each other; most knew me from before anyway! Our equipment was being upgraded all the time. I received a full issue of kit and was surprised to find we had no shortages. Mato Kunkic, my friend and former CO has joined the HV again but I had met up with him in Zagreb on the way in to Bosnia from Croatia. Robby was at home working as the boss of a shop making army uniforms. His days as a scout ended shortly after I had left the war zone while on action. He lost both his legs in a minefield while on a recce patrol in the Krajina. He was subsequently decorated. As usual I was over-keen to be in the thick of the action and was contemplating a hit-and-run raid on the Serb line near Kupres. This was extremely ill advised as the whole brigade was preparing for the next major offensive. So Zeko veto it; although at the time I didn't know why. All of us were to be on action again soon enough. In perhaps the most significant action of the endgame in Bosnia. The next joint offensive was decisive. Maestral-dva (2) was a sister action to that which had liberated Kupres. The plan, at first, had quite limited objectives. To liberate Kupres Polje, the valley in which the Croatian town lies. But once we had establish the momentum of the attack there was no stopping us. On the night of 7/8th of September we moved to our forming up positions near Bosnaski Gravoho. During the early morning of the 9th we were embattled with the dawn. From Dzamija, a mountain range, we headed off on foot to open up the Serb line from a flank a day's march through hostile terrain. That night we bivouacked on the Serb front-line. I was in particular “dosing” down in a Serb hut with other of my section. We had over ran the Serb positions in quick succession as the light was failing with very limited resistance by an unsure and demoralised enemy. I personally had no target present itself even as we enter the bunkers of the Serb line. At a range of over 800m we received some small arms fire but the Bosnian Serbs broke and ran, leaving some kit behind, as soon as we were in a position to launch our assault. We found warm Turkish coffee and equipment left in place but the Serbs had bugged out without putting up the stiff resistance I was anticipating. Sercha and I dragged our sorry arses up that hill to the Serb line feeling last weeks round of drinking. As we approached the Serb machine gun posts and bunkers we fanned out to assault only to find all the line already abandoned. I could believe our luck after the fierce inter-alliance fighting of previous years; where ever foot was won in blood. Right up to the last seconds as we faced down a Serb bunker I was anticipating trouble. To my amazement Sercha was walking straight at the porthole of the bunker showing no regard for his safety. So I hastily darted to his flank flicking my safety off, still expected a Serb response. But we were quickly in there first line without further activity by the Serbs. The light was failing and after a full day coming forward from our lines we were all exhausted. I priority changed to find shelter and rest. Sercha and I moved and joined up with others from Alpha for the night. We stayed in a Serb hut which only an hour a go was full with a team of Serbs. I was woken up for stage duty and spent a tense couple of hours wondering if we could expect a counter attack. I imagined the Serbs we going to put up stiff resistance at some point. Perhaps we had just caught them off guard and gained local tactical superiority that might not last. At other times during the war to be on stage was reminiscent of the Rouke's Drift. But here we were sleeping peacefully under the stars with only our fears to fear. We all were aware that our major objective was the valley below us. Kupres Poljie is the plan to the north of Kupres. The Serbs had ethnically cleansed the Croats from both the town and its surrounding villages in the first days of the war. Now the tables were turned. The following morning Alpha reconstituted itself. We had spent the night widely dispersed in small groups and mixed in with other formations. Basically we had done our own thing. Josip Zeko had kept us on the move constantly and although at the time I thought we were not taking due care, he was eventually vindicated. We had over ran the Serb line along a wide front without taking a causality. We were at that point still on foot as our transport was in the rear. Josip radioed to his brother and Jozo to bring our four-wheeled vehicles and the truck with our excess kit forward. Although we were carrying heavy packets most of our spare kit was in the truck and our food and water was brought up by Jozo in the jeeps. The whole column formed up and moved to the pickup point. An APC was brought forward and a Yugoslav tank (M82). After replenishing our ammunition and water we moved out in good order. The weather was perfect and there was a party atmosphere developing. The seriousness of the day before had been replaced by a heady feeling of being young, single and footloose. We were all in our war paint and looked and felt the part and yet we acted move like members of a Mardi Gra than those engaged in a very risky operation. Not knowing what was a foot and still trying to have my fill of the mineral water on offer. The heat made us very thirty. I found myself jogging after the APC and join the others hanging from its sides. It was a locally built thing with great chunks or armour plating thrown on to its sides. I had to think for a moment about how to mount that beast. But once up it I had a great vantage point from which to see events unfolding. I felt like Hannibal riding an elephant. It wound down a dirt track shirted some wood land and then disappeared into the trees. If the Serbs wanted to ambush us or dig in they could have bloodied our noses easily enough. But as the column moved on it became increasingly clear that the Serbs had fled the field. But the biggest test of Serb resolve was yet to come. A bit further one we came to an escapement over looking the valley below. We debussed and moved forward on foot to clear any obstacle. It quickly became clear that the Serbs again had left their defensive positions above the first hamlet. Josip called us back as our forces we split in two in order to engage in a flanking action against the first hamlet. Alpha clambered above the tank and moved off. As we retraced out steps we rounded a bend to find a woman HVO journalist filming us. For the next few minutes I enjoyed the delightfully novel experiences of trying to stay on a rocking tank as it negotiated non-idea terrain features and tracks. At one point the old bitich stalled and the driver had to clamber about to manually restart it. All this seemed quite comic but I could not help reflecting on our situation if the Serbs were a more worthy enemy. We started off again without further a do about nothing. For a time before we had to stop I was siting over the engine compartment. The heat was almost unbearable but it was a flat surface to cling to. I took advantage of the stop to straggle the gun turret while Josip did his Washington on the Delaware impersonation. I felt like the last boy scout. Despite the ensuing chaos we eventually found ourselves in place to see smoke burning from the first hamlet signalling that that had been taken already. We debussed and move out. The main road fanned out in front of us. Someone started to break down a fence. So we all joined in, so that we could form a skirmishing line to one side of the road. We reached our objective with out coming under fire. So we carried out a house to house search and brought up our vehicles. Where were the Chekniks? Then our advance gained pace as it became clear that the enemy had again abandoned their homes and defences. Our truck joined us with the rest of the assault force just as we started lighting hay towers left in the fields to signal to our friends across the valley that we had taken our objectives and we on the move again. The advance was more like the Paris-Dakar rally than a military offensive.

Chapter(8):The Paris-Dakar Rally
Now the mass of us went forward in every available vehicle. Leap frog leaping forward in spurts, checking out one group of houses after another, then rushing forward again. The Serbs had left leaving behind everything that they could not carry. By lunch time we had overran all of Novi Selo without incident and even had time to ransack the school house that had been turned to a hospital. We ate and had a group photograph taken next to the Yugoslav Partisan monument, which was latter blow up. In front of this was the Serb line over looking Kupres. And above on the highest ground were defences in depth all along a mastiff. Previously Muslim forces had try to take these positions by frontal assaults. And beaten back four times previously. And here were we behind enemy lines securing there rear echelons without opposition. Any moment now I thought things would become interesting. It seemed too unlikely that the Serbs would not put up a fierce fight once we assaulted their primary defences. After all they had withstood major assaults by poor grade Muslim infantry before. And we were number in tens not thousands. This was my logic. But unknown to me Muslim forces in Bugojno we already massing to take Donji Vakuf and the Serbs were out flanked and were pressed to two fronts and a flank by a combined all arms operation. And for the first time in the war found themselves out gunned and in insufficient numbers to hold attacks from both flanks simultaneously. What surprised me was that even with this being so that they made no real attempt to inflict massive causalities as the withdrew. None of the houses or roads had been mined and there were stay behind units to slow up our advance as we power housed forward! We then re-grouped and rested in the shade as another Commando joined as for the next part of journey of disbelief. Our truck had its canopy folded up and we were getting practised at flooding aboard after each stop. Some bright spark had found some hard core porn and it was pasted around to the general amusement of all. I reflected that after the years a small scale pin prick actions suddenly we were about to take there line from behind with little prospect of serious opposition. Again in the unit jeeps and truck we formed up with the others for the last part of the days activities before sorting out where we would sleep, shit and shave. We took a dirt track off the road up into the woods. And one of hanging on the side of the truck was knocked off by a low branch to the general amusement of us all. He was bloodied but unbowed. Then we crested the rise and cleared the trees to see a long trench complex with out buildings and bunkers. Josip and the commander of the other group went forward in their vehicles to do an area reconnaissance. Unbelievably these positions to were abandoned.

Chapter(9): ”There is always the unexpected”
With little to fear at all as we went forward once more completely disbelieving. Or was just I because the others had already taken part in Maestral-1. And the Serbs withdrew with minimal resistance then too to all accounts. So as we entered evening the whole team was driving down the Serb trenches picking up abandoned boxes of shells and small calibre mortars. Finally we drove up into a bunker complex and set up office. We had taken the Demirovac mountain range without meeting any significant resistance. Perhaps the strangest occurrence of the war. "There is always the unexpected, isn't there?" Our Muslim allies joined us above Donij Vakuf. The cases of beers dually arrived we found places to leave our sleeping bags and had our shirts off cooling down and relaxing. A friend took me to the edge of a cliff face and showed me a panorama that allowed me to see for the first time Donij Vakuf, Bugojno and Gornij Vakuf and in the far distance was the Radisha mountain range. It was only then that the seer scale of our achievement came home to me. In 24 hours we had changed the everything. We had the Serbs where we wanted them and had staged a joint Muslim-Croat offensive successfully. Here we were in the Serb primary positions having a party. When two Muslim wander up to us and asked me of all things if we were Muslim soldiers. I found this quite funny whereas the Croats were none to pleased . Maybe the knew I had returned and that I had considered joining the Muslim army and then decided against it since my pay and conditions would be effected, I like my old team and the Croats were the most effective anti-Serb force. That a small unit of the HVO could safely camp next to a much larger Muslim group without incident greatly reassured me about the durability of the new Muslim-Croat alliance. Inside one of the bunkers was a bit a graffiti in chalk left by a Serb. It was his name and a date. Which was the 9th of September. The young lad must have arrived one afternoon and stayed long enough to sleep and go. This said it all to me. The Serbs were not just totally unprepared for the kind of joint offensive we had launched but also unwilling to other committed resistance. I never rated the Serbs as fighters but now they were a joke. They had left behind them their own army magazine in it was a cartoon depicting Bosnia and showed a pendulum. It has swung against them. That night I stretched out on a bunker floor next to Plakan, who was our logistar Tvrtko had married and left us, and in the morning I looked around and said Dobro Jutro Federaticija; to the amusement of all. We quickly gathered up our things and were back in Kupres by 10. To change our kit in preparation for the next part of the offensive. We rushed through town singing army songs. And shouting out "Oggi, oggi, oggi...oj, oj, oj" and other version of Max Boyce's war cry celebrating our victory by chanting out our nicknames. The civilians came out to see us in war paint and shouting with laughter in the air. It was a cool but gloriously sunny day in the Bosnian mountains. The air rushed past us warm remembering summer as we returned to Novi Selo from Kupres and our previous line. As we passed the Serb former front line we saw that in the valley their defences we stretched and not in depth. Only a line of mines 10m deep limited movement and there were some bunkers mostly as check points along the road. We moved on to the next town to join up with the rest of the army who were re-assembling outside the next town as our artillery caught us up. By midday it was roasting and we took over from the sun in the trees just as some Serb guns dropped a salvo of shells on our general position. They quickly lost interest and none of our transport had been damaged or anyone hurt. Again I thought finally we must meet Serb resistance in depth. Any further down this road and we would be in Serb lands proper. We were all irritated by the wait. Eventually we moved out. Each unit dispersing on a wide front to go forward into Serb territory. To seek and destroy. Alpha joined one of the flanking columns and again as we rushed forward Serb artillery tried to get a bead on us. But I our progress was rapid. The other column came under rifle fire near Sipovo and an ex-Legionnaire, an English man called Frank, the officer commanding was killed by a sniper as he led the column of vehicles forward in a built up area. But still we had not come under direct fire since the afternoon of the first day; it was all going our way. On a mastiff overlooking Sipovo we were to spend the night under intermittent artillery fire. It was close but ineffective. A Russian built Mi-6 helicopter flew over us bringing a General forward to inspect our gains and was gone and some clown put a grenade down a well sending a jet of water up with wood fragments high into the air. Sending us all running for cover for one reason or other. Although it helped to relieve the tension of being under constant shelling. At last light some of the other rounded up a pig and shot it with a Kalashnikov it squealed but did not fall until it was set upon with an axe. We had an unlikely barbecue and drank brandy. I spent the night with the rest of the team in a hayloft. And in the morning we drove into Sipovo; the first Serbian town to fall to us. This would to be the HQ of the British contingent of IFOR. It was a misty morning as we rolled into town. Already it had been ransacked and looted and some of the Croat militias had been through firing houses and breaking windows. We parked and looked around before forming up outside the town as we prepared to make a play for Jajce. This was an historic and picturesque mainly Muslim town. We joined up with the other Recce platoon and moved out on foot. Our task was to clear the route on both sides of the valley. This took the rest of the afternoon. Again there was some shelling but only spasmodic gunfire and we made good time. As one of the strangers in the brigade I was gaining notoriety and really enjoying our little walk in the "park". As we moved forward we found every Muslim or Croat hamlet had been raised by Serbian extremists. The sweat was running off me but along with some others from Alpha I found some wine and fresh fruit to quench our thirst. An officer from the other unit passed us coming from the leading group with the instruction to back track down the river. I climbed on to the back of his land cruiser while others got on the front bonnets and we went on. My fingers we sore with trying to hang on as we swerved this way then the other along a dirt track. But I was the fortunate one; one of the young ones came off as we hit a bump and swerved. He flew into some bramble bushes and trees. I was tempted to call him lucky because he was the same one who had been brushed off before Demirovac. He was up and smiling soon enough though. We were all dropped off near a small bridge over the river. Some of the rest of the team caught us up on children's bikes. A comic sight it all was; with each one of us taking the “mickey” out of the others calling them specialijists, specialists, which technically we all were after courses in Croatia. We had lost contact with the enemy and trying to make up time. One of the gang, Zug, threw a grenade in as we passed over a bridge to add to the carnival atmosphere. He was to marry his Bosnian Muslim girlfriend and settle in Livno. We ribbed him endless about building the federation and so on. When I returned to Bosnia in the autumn of 1996 they looked happy enough and Ana Brnada had joined SFOR. He was one of the most unconventional of us. He looked like a punk rocker recruited by MASH for a season of mayhem in “Kelly’s Heroes”. We became good friends and I enjoyed his freethinking. It was a pity that he couldn't speak English but he got the joke, when others did not. We then walked through this wasteland of burnt out houses that were surrounded by wrecked cars and businesses. It was the worst of the devastation that I had yet seen my mood changed and I became more reflective. We crossed the valley on to the high road but again had been over taken by other teams held in reserve as we checked out the route of march. Some APCs came forward and we went with these battle taxies forward a few more miles before turning off the main road and up a track with a light tank following. It proved to be to step for the APC and we had to de-bus and make our way up hill on foot. A pickup truck passed us with food and drink so I stooped it and got my share before it proved too late. The tank then shot up the slope with out much problem. I joined the rest of Alpha at the top of the rise. We went on in group strength to a former Croat village just in front of Jajce that had been totally destroyed and painted with Serb ultra-nationalist slogans. There were still tracks from a truck laden with mortar rounds and the footprints of Serbian army boots. They had simply driven up in font of the hamlet and shelled it into flames. The people had long since been driven out. We advanced over open ground cautiously and then skirted the village. As we came down the hill we heard some movement in one of the sheds of the house. Zeko started to take aim. So we all fanned out to give him support and covering fire without needing a command. The individual put his hands up and turned out to be one of the other groups snooping around. Zeko was pleased that we had responded appropriately. Pile surprised me in this regard as he was always clowning but there was irony in his voice and I did not know when to take him seriously. Night was fallen so we carried on down the hill into the town below. There was some movement but the shadowy figures turned out to be Croats to. We waited at the side of the road and we driven back down the valley to sleep in a house off the river all was well. We met up with the rest of the team and made our beds for the night in the rooms of a abandoned house. In the morning it started to rain early and I rose with the dawn. There was a lot of traffic on the road mostly coaches of soldiers being moved forward and trucks full of supplies. Yet also there was some civilian cars milling about. I stood watching the world go by from a veranda as some Muslims heading for Jajce stopped to ask us the situation nearer their destination. It seemed strange to see us cooperating like this after the recent troubles. Shortly afterwards a military police car drove up with a Serb prisoner in the back. Things had a surreal quality to them then. At the time little did we known that the first phase of the offensive had come to an end. For the next few days before we were stood down we were moved around the front lines as regular infantry. We joked about pushing on to Banja Luka. I was on a roll and very keen to be in further action. The team humoured me and were good-natured about my restlessness. We fell into a routine of night guard duties. Then Alpha set-up base in a civilian home in the centre of Sipovo; while we prepared flats for ourselves. An irregular mob of Croat militias and non-professional soldiers had been through the town and ransacked it completely. At night some properties were still being destroyed as we arrived. Shortly afterwards so did our pay. I killed time eating, sleeping and walking around the town. It was a notorious for the Parisian monument and museum. I still could not believe the expediency of our offensive. A soldiers-cafe was opened in the town and a video machine found for us to watch every cassette we could lay our hands on. There as Serb made tape of the fall of Kupres in April 1992. We saw a group much like our own in action; which was uncanny. We wondered where these specialists were when we came to take back Federation terrain and to begin to overrun Serbian towns. I thought "send in the dancing girls". This final massive joint Muslim-Croat offensive of September 1995, Maestral-2, overran 2000 square kilometres of terrain previously in the hands of the Bosnian Serbs and sealed the fate of the Serbs. This operation had not only liberated occupied Muslim and Croat lands but also was now overrunning Serb territory. Croat artillery was moved up into strategic positions around the next Serb town and started to pound it. We waited expectantly for the land attack on Mrkonijic Grad. Our unit base was moved into a block of flats in the centre of Sipovo. I had the ground floor flat with Pipac. If we took Mrkonijic Grad this would open up Central Bosnia and would become possible to travel directly from Sarajevo to Zageb my major roads. The whole of the First Guards Regiment was brought forward and we took the town without opposition. It was just a matter of approaching on foot. As we cleared the terrain in front of us we could hear distant guns in the sunshine. We skirted the town and moved on to positions about 10km from Banja Luka. There was some Serbian soldiers’ bodies lying in the bushes off the dirt road as we advanced otherwise very little sign of resistance; and some bodies left where they fell.

Chapter(10):Dying in the Guts
For the next few days we held the line under Serb artillery fire and there was some patrolling. Then we were moved up to a Serb out station and set our field base. A peace agreement was close and we busied ourselves in plotting our own front line. I realised my time with Croats was coming to an end and was spending more leaves in Split. I didn't want to start a relationship with a local girl if I was returning to Wales so soon. Although Tomo had promised to introduce me to his sister when we were free over the festive holiday and did so during the New Years Eve Party and again when I returned for a holiday during August 1996. And Tony a friend of Vanda wanted me to meet his sister, Ana. I had already spent the night with him and his father in their family house in Uskopljie. I was lonely and even Robi had introduced me to some women that worked for him but I felt Zagreb was to far to travel to see them once a month. So I went to Split to indulge myself and forget the pains of war in a far country. Mostly to forget the people maimed and killed over the five years of ethnic violence in Bosnia and Croatia. Throughout November we waited in the out station and I began to feel less and less like a soldier. I started to become very bored and to drink heavily at night. We would have barbecues and drink canned beer. We waited for payday. Finally we were giving the unmilitary task of herding together cattle and packing them on trucks to be taken to Kupres. This took a night and a day of messing about in cow shit. I was beginning to feel like Don Quixote. When the command came to leave for Sipovo I couldn't be more pleased; I'm no farmer. Zeko was a better farmer than I realised. I thought like Mato he was a forester. Tomo enjoyed my feeble efforts to do my bit. I knew then I could not assimilate into a peacetime Bosnia. I am a city dweller. I have a university education not a trade. I knew I would be going home soon; but I wanted to celebrate peace first. That I would see peace before the traumas and stresses of my wars got to me. Already the stress of previous trauma was effecting my health and emotional state. I was, in the words of Padraic Fiacc the famous Irish poet dying in the guts from the killing and the killed. I knew I would suffer from combat stress to some degree for years after the war was over. We returned to Sipovo and packed up the unit and bussed out to take up residence in Drvar on the Croatia border. Peace had come but not to those traumatised by the war; not to those who had lost friends and relatives, had been maimed and scarred during the long days of the conflict! For them the war will have many anniversaries and nights without sleep or days with dreams. It is always the innocent that suffer most in war; more than even those in the thick of the fighting. In the Balkan wars of the 1990s ten civilians were killed for every soldier. And throughout the last century the trend has been against the civilian population. But the Serbs have not cited us for war crimes at the Hague tribunal. In the Dayton Peace Agreement Sipovo and Mrkonijic Grad were traded for land round Brcko in order that the Bosnian Serbs, now isolated from their kin in Serbia proper, would agree to terms. The Bosnian Serbs faced total defeat and their position was untenable; some of us in both the Croat and Muslim camps were still talking about taking Banja Luka. But the Bosnian Croats feared that this would make the Muslim-led Sarajevo government to powerful. And would have made further in-fighting within the alliance very likely. So the Bosnian Croats would not provide heavy artillery or special units for a further operation. Without them Government Forces could not take further action. The peace agreement was signed in December 4 1995. Finally after 3 long years it was possible for the UN to pass a peace enforcement mandate which would lead to the sending of an International (Enforcement) Force I-FOR to carry out the military aspects of the Dayton agreement over the following year. The extended Balkan War can be understood as one about simple concerns; about territory and identity and the assertion of nationhood. IFOR has stabilised the situation but as in Afghanistan and other recent conflicts worldwide, the initial UN effort served only to widen and prolong the conflict. Elections were held to try and put the Bosnians, Serb, Muslim and Croat, in a different context. But gave political legitimacy to the new status quo and the previous centralist autocratic regimes; it certainly will not end the "politics of identity" or the ungodly synthesis of ethno-religious fundamentalism and small nation nationalism. NATO forces serving as the UN-IFOR contingent has been unwilling or unable too pursue war criminals in Bosnia. The principle of the War Crimes Tribunals is essential for the normalisation of relations in the region. Muslims in the North of Bosnia will not easy forgive the Serbs for engaging in a policy of "ethnic cleansing"; they certainly will not forget the genocide intentions of the Bosnian Serb regime. Justice must be seen to be done and IFOR had an enforcement mandate if not the resolve to act! A new mandate was agreed for a Stabilisation force, S-FORCE, which during July 1997 finally "snatched" one of the Serbian war criminals from Bosnian Serb territory; the Bosnian Serb Republic. The Bosnian Serb Leadership, those who ordered and organised the campaigns of "ethnic cleansing" in Northern and Central Bosnia, were not allowed to hold office in peacetime. And if the agreement is to lead to a durable peace it becomes increasingly necessary to put the Serb President on trial but may yet prove counterproductive in the short -term, although desirable. It may be necessary to permit the more senior members of the Serbian regime in Bosnia to go into exile; to save the agreement, over-stressing the one objective of punishing the senior members of the Serbian regime may shatter the Dayton agreement by heavy handed enforcement stressing the wrong priorities. The mandate for IFOR was renewed at the end of the year for a further term. One or two years of peace-enforcement is unlikely to be adequate to heal five years of brutal ethnic violence. In peacetime the real issue is how to rebuild the economic infrastructure of the region and then to politically integrate it into the rest of Europe. Our responsibilities have not ended and the West has not yet fulfilled its’ commitment to provide financial aid. Nor is the scope of the planned economic re-structuring extensive enough. There can be no lasting peace until war damage to the social and economic infrastructure is repaired and the various populations enter into normal relations. This implies the need for a strategy to reintegrate the polarised communities at least in regard to the major market centres and border towns. Economic necessity will force some accommodation sooner rather than latter.

Chapter(12): "Ethnic Cleansing" in Turkey
So great is its brutal repression of Kurds that the European Economic Community has up to now excluded Turkey from membership. Kurdistan was arbitrarily partitioned and brutally occupied by Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran in the aftermath of the 1914-1918 World War; the Kurdish people have steadfastly resisted all attempts at assimilation and fought with incredible tenacity and self-sacrife to defend their ethnic and cultural identity. Of all the occupying powers none has acted with greater violence to defend their ethnic and cultural identity. To this day the Turkish state has acted as if Kurdish territory has been colonised and treated Kurds with the most deprived means of coercion possible, as slaves beyond the scope of international conventions on human rights. While the Turkish media has been terrorised into "looking the other way" the state has contrived to repress, massacre and torture with impunity; publicly abrogating the European Human Rights Convention. In 10 years of serve and uninterrupted war successive Turkish regimes have flooded Kurdistan with many thousands of special police and para-military forces in a regime of terror to engage in various forms of cultural and economic genocide. The parallels with the war in Bosnia waged by the Serbs and the Soviets in Afghanistan are marked. regardless of any western criticism Turkish civilian and military regimes have contrived to deny the self-determination of the Kurdish people and instead continue to commit atrocities and otherwise persecute the Kurds in South-eastern Turkey. Every member state of the United Nations, every international body is equally guilty of compliance with Turkey until they choose to exercise their power to put pressure on Turkey to end its barbaric violation of human rights in North-West Kurdistan i.e. Southern-Eastern Turkey. In order to stop the bloodshed and suffering caused to the civilian non-combatants. The brutal violation of human rights will continue without the mediation of the international community and decisive action by the UN.

Chapter(13): Closing Comments

Chapter (14):ENDGAME IN BURMA.

At the beginning of the year a made a solidarity trip into Burma with Karen rebels. I visited one of their training camps for their Karen Revolution Day Parade. I wanted to meet the Karen medics of the KNLA and of the Free Burma Rangers. And start the process of integrating myself into the region and specifically Karen culture. As 'internationals' we were motivated to 'free the oppressed, end genocide, establish democracy and defend liberty' and risked life, limb and our livelihoods too do so; in our many conflicts. I was minded to make this freedom struggle my next one but one man alone can't make that much difference to the battle. So I have tried to assist the Karen in social and a humanitarian fashion; as I mostly did in Afghanistan. The Karen, one of Burma's many minority people, have been waging an increasingly desperate struggle for self-determination against the Burmese government since 1949. The principle demands of Burma's ethnic peoples are to gain genuine autonomy for their home lands and to achieve a significant say in the key affairs of the country as a whole. Prospects for a democratic properous and peaceful Burma are slight without a just and amicabl settlement of the country's ethnic conflicts. Judging by events in the last nine months since I returned from the KNLA bas, escalating military operations will only increase human rights abuses and the displacement of Karen villagers, many of whom seek refuge in Thailand. The survival of the Karen insurgency now the rainy season has ended seems threatened. Only UN or Alliance intervention can change the sistuation which is becoming more untenuable each day. We internationals are not in a position to affect change this time; other than in small numbers and few occassions provide advice, inspiration and strategy. The Karen themselves are split about the way forward. Continue to fight for survival or try to negotiate a durable peace with terms. The son of the legendary Karen resistance leader Bo Mya; Lt-Col Ner Dah Mya, CO of the KNLA 7th Brigade, and a Baptist Pastor have attempted to seek a truce and peace negotiations with the junta but recently cancelled the 'gentleman's ceasefire' established in 2004 and insisted on fresh negotiations while going on major offensive. Sustained operations through the rainy season are rare. We are entering the endgame in Burma if the Karen do not hold out this year; it may be all over by the next Karen Revolution Day; which is the 31 January 2007! It may already be too late for outside help. Ilustrated in the photos the 101 batalion of the KNLA 7th brigage.