Book description
Based on the author's experiences as an EC Monitoring Mission
Observer, this narrative account of the civil war in the former
Yugoslavia combines material from a range of eyewitness and
documentary sources. Brendan O'Shea had access to both EU and UN
official documents for his research and used these to unravel the
complex story of the war. The author tells the tragic story of what
happened at the 'safe haven' at Bihac in north-western Bosnia between
1992 and 1996 to show the Bosnian civil war in microcosm. At Bihac,
Muslim fought all variety of Serb, Muslim fought Muslim and the Croats
interfered continually - thereby ensuring a rapid descent into bitter
civil war and a vindictive power struggle. 'Ethnic cleansing' was rife
and horrific war crimes which shocked the world were committed by all
sides. Local politicians manipulated the desperate refugee situation
in order to extract concessions, humanitarian aid and considerable
sums of money from the UN and other agencies, and then siphoned off
huge quantities to pay for military arms and equipment. O'Shea reveals
how the generals manipulated all agencies who came to assist them to
ensure their own military and political advancement. Radovan Karadzic,
Ratko Mladic, and Slobodan Milosevic are still names that stick
horribly in the memory. As every party to the Bosnian tragedy promoted
their own versions of events as 'the truth', O'Shea revealed the
numerous layers of deceit and dishonesty. He has brought the story
up-to-date for this edition.
Dr Brendan O'Shea is a member of the Irish Defence Forces. He is
the editor of In the Service of Peace and co-author of Baptised in
Blood: Illustrated History of the Cork Brigade, and The Burning of
Cork. He served with the UN in the Lebanon and in the former Yugoslavia.
