Reprinted without permission, for "fair use" only
Panorama, BBC1 TV 23 January 1994 21:30 GMT
Now on BBC1 in tonight's Panorama the BBC's Foreign Affairs Editor, John
Simpson, follows the controversial peacekeeping mission of General Sir
Michael Rose through some of the worst scenes of fighting experienced in
Bosnia.
Simpson: The Bosnian government regards everything that is happening here
in the clearest moral terms. This was a small, undefended, multi-racial
society which was brutally attacked by a well-trained army. Only those who
actually support the aggressors, the Bosnian Serbs, could possibly
question that.
Rose: But the government here, predominantly Muslim, and increasingly good
at getting its message across abroad, has a particular agenda. To get the
international community to intervene on its side.
.....
Rose has always maintained that Gorazde wasn't too badly damaged in the
fighting. Further proof, his enemies say, that he's pro-Serb. As we
flew over, it seemed completely devastated. Once again, though, things
weren't quite what they seemed. Even though a Pentagon adviser
criticised Rose recently and said that satellite pictures showed that
practically every house here had been damaged.
Rose: "The answer to that is, yes - practically every house in Gorazde
has been damaged. But most of the damage that was done to Gorazde had
taken place in the fighting some two years before when the Bosnian
government forces drove the Serbs from this town. And there were 12,500
Serbs living here at that time and they were all driven off. The way to
distinguish a house that's been damaged by fighting, where a shell has
hit it, and a house that's been damaged by ethnic cleansing is: if it's
got no roof, no doors, no window frames, nothing in the house at all and
there are burn-marks up it and bullets sprayed around the walls, that is
a house that has been damaged by ethnic cleansing. A house that has
been damaged by shelling has a shell-hole in it and there are still
people trying to live in that building with their furniture, because
they've got nowhere else to go. That's something you can't see from
satellites and of course at that time the international image of what
was happening in Gorazde was very different from the reality. What was
dangerous was that policies were beginning to be put together, on both
sides of the Atlantic, about what we should do in Gorazde, but these
policies were being put together on totally flawed information."
....
There's a propaganda war going on between the Bosnian government and the
UN and the UN isn't winning it. The journalists who make the daily
pilgrimage to the press centre of the UN's redoubt in Sarajevo often
have a particular sense of commitment. It's hard to live and work in a
city which's gone through such suffering without identifying strongly
with it.
[Journalist to Silajdzic: "You've used the word appeasement before
now..."]
The Bosnians don't have many weapons in this war, but one of the most
effective of them is the soundbite.
Simpson: "Do you feel you've ever manipulated the media in any way in
your own interests?"
Silajdzic: "The question is whether we have told the truth. I think we
told the truth. Yes, it's true that you can tell the truth in many
ways, and of course we always chose the way the most beneficial for us.
There's no doubt about it."
Up to now, General Rose has been inclined to keep his disputes with the
Bosnian government to himself. But at the end of his time as UN
commander he's decided to make a few things public. He's taking us up
to a UN position in an old Turkish fort overlooking Sarajevo. He's got
a remarkable story to tell.
Last September, inside this armoured personnel carrier, a British team
was operating an elderly but effective piece of equipment called
Cymbeline, which tracks the firing of mortars.
Soldier: "We started locating, rounds, to start with it was five or six
at a time, then it was going on to 30-plus. In total we located about
250 rounds which lasted for about half hour, the actual bombardment,
[indistinct] actually small arms fire hitting the sides of the fort."
It was, by far, the worst outbreak of violence since the ceasefire in
February seven months earlier. Nobody knew who was responsible, but
they assumed it was the Serbs.
The UN, though, realised it was Bosnian government troops. Firing
mortars from closed beside some of the most sensitive places in the
city, including Rose's headquarters and the hospital.
Soldier: "We could actually locate this to smack on the firing
baseplate, depending on how good the operator is who is actually on the
equipment at the time."
Simpson: "Smack on, I mean literally [Soldier: "Yes."] you could
actually know precisely ["Yes."] where it was."
Rose: "By demonstrating who was firing and from where people were
firing we were able to go down and see President Izetbegovic and
explain to him the consequences of what his army were doing. Of course,
one doesn't necessarily say that President Izetbegovic had anything to
do with this strategy but he looked sufficiently concerned to stop the
firing immediately and indeed it stopped the firing and we got no more
mortar or artillery fire again."
Simpson: "But what was the purpose of firing out of the city like
that?"
Rose: "Well I can only suppose it was to try and create images of war
which would help some political purpose. And it was the demonstration
of where the firing positions were coming from, ie that it was mainly
the Bosnian government forces that had provoked this action that caused
President Izetbegovic to take immediate action to stop it.
Simpson: "But the idea was to get the Serbs to fire back."
Rose: "I guess that would have been one of the purposes of opening
fire, yes."
The UN found the timing of this sudden outbreak suspicious. The Bosnian
president was going to America the next day to lobby for an end to the
arms embargo. It all looked like more ammunition in the propaganda war.
Simpson: "Do your forces do that kind of thing?"
Silajdzic: "Well, everything is possible in the war. But not the
intention. So we shell them so they will shell us. To do what? Why
should we get them kill us?"
....
Silajdzic press conference on meeting Rose: "So we can say now, I will
talk to General Rose here right now. Mr Akashi is responsible for the
death of 70,000 people in Bihac right now. There is no call for the
airstrikes from General Rose here, from Mr Akashi. Those are the
responsible people. If a lot of people die in Bihac it is because of
them."
...
So what really happened in Bihac. Rose went there a few weeks later.
The Serbs hadn't captured it after all. These were the first pictures
of it since the fighting, but they were so peaceful scarcely anyone
broadcast them.
This town has clearly been through a terrible time. But the degree of
suffering and damage does seem to have been exaggerated.
The number of casualties here is a matter of serious dispute. So much
so, that UN workers in Bihac who reported low figures have been
threatened with death.
The Bosnian government has now revised its estimate of deaths downwards
to 16,000. The UN told Panorama this afternoon that it thought fewer
that 1,000 people had died, most were soldiers.
Simpson: "Can you tell me what happened that night in November when you
accused General Rose and Mr Akashi..."
Silajdzic: "I would like to ask you not to elaborate on that, I thought
I answered those questions."
Simpson: "There was an occasion when you blamed specifically blamed
Akashi..."
Silajdzic: "It's true but I would not like to elaborate, I said what I
wanted to say."
Simpson: "One of the things that you accused them of was the deaths of
70,000 people..."
Silajdzic: "Very good, very good, again I will repeat, if you don't
have any more questions then I'll go to my office and work."
Simpson: "But I do have more questions..."
Silajdzic: "Thank you very much."
Simpson: "They are relevant questions..."
Silajdzic: "No, no, I will not elaborate on that as I said. I will not
talk about, there's so many things to talk about here, not
personalities, that's not my job..."
Simpson: "I'm not asking..."
Silajdzic: "I was very clear that day, and that's it."
Simpson: "Do you regret what you said?"
Silajdzic: "I'm sorry I said I would not elaborate any more on that
question."