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Life as a deployed peacemaker
was hard, frustrating By Doug Lange Doug Lange is director of Facilities Services. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, he returned from Kosovo in March after serving a four-month tour helping to repair basic services and restore peace. In the months since my return from my duties as a peacekeeper in Kosovo, I have often been asked about my experiences. What is Kosovo like? What did I do every day? Is the situation improving? When can the U.S. troops come home? Kosovo is a rugged, mountainous province of Serbia, part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. The bombing campaign that NATO undertook in the spring of 1999 was designed to stop ethnic cleansing by the ruling Serbian (Orthodox) minority against the Kosovar Albanian (Muslim) majority. In June 1999, NATO and non-NATO peacekeeping troops occupied the province under provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. Upon the withdrawal of Serbian army forces, more than 600,000 Kosovar Albanian refugees returned to Kosovo from the refugee camps in Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia. The withdrawal of Serbian "protection" set off a mass exodus of ethnic Serbians from the province, and with them they took not only the sitting government but also most of the technical expertise and equipment to keep the province functioning. We moved into a situation where none of the basic governmental services were being provided. Chaos was routine. The mission of the peacekeepers was to provide a safe and secure environment for the major work of rebuilding the social, political and economic systems of the region. The UN Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK) undertook the massive task of actually restoring a functioning government, providing basic services and rebuilding the province. The complexity of UNMIK’s mission is compounded by more than a decade of neglect to infrastructure systems, the destruction of many of the governmental records, and the very different objectives of the different factions (many K-Albanians want independence rather than autonomy). To help put the problem into perspective, imagine a place where no basic services are provided. Utilities such as electricity, water, garbage disposal, telephone, etc., don’t function. No police or fire service exists. No property ownership, birth, death, marriage or other records exist, and there is no mechanism for buying or selling property. No vehicle registration records remain. The medical system no longer functions. There is no single currency or banking system, and no judicial system to dispose of criminal cases. Add to these circumstances a high degree of ethnic hatred and intimidation and you have a good grasp of the initial situation in Kosovo. The good news is that the peacekeepers did a good job of restoring and enforcing law and order. Violence was dramatically reduced and the international community was able to concentrate on addressing critical human needs. My job was to coordinate the actions of the military peacekeepers with civilian organizations, including all of the international relief organizations. The immediate focus of our efforts was to make sure that everyone had shelter and subsistence for the winter. The result was a tremendous success. No one starved or froze to death during the winter of 1999-2000. Concurrently, we worked daily to develop a functioning government at all levels and to provide basic services. Although UNMIK was primarily responsible for reconstruction and restoration of the government, our missions were so tightly interwoven that we expended major amounts of energy and time coaching UNMIK and coordinating our actions. The process of rebuilding Kosovo may take years. I arrived in Kosovo a few days before Thanksgiving, just in time to see the first major winter storm and the President of the United States. Initially, I lived and worked in a tent on the larger of two U.S. base camps. In the next few months we moved into plywood buildings — and finally got dependable telephone and Internet communications and real mess halls. Although I still slept on a cot (when I slept), the quality of life continued to improve. My normal workday was about 16 to 18 hours, seven days a week. We traveled in groups of four, not counting translators, in at least two armored vehicles, always wore flak vests and helmets, and constantly carried loaded weapons for personal protection. Life was hard as a deployed peacekeeper. I think the most difficult part of the experience, beyond leaving family and friends, was the frustration associated with making so little daily progress and the feeling of powerlessness to affect the situation. We did make progress but the need was so overwhelming that you personally wanted to do so much more. I am genuinely glad to be back in the safety of the U.S. and back at Furman among all of my friends. It was quite an experience. Thanks to all for your prayers and support during my deployment. |
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