Reflections
Each year I take the eleven days between November 1st and Remembrance Day to reflect on the folly of war. This year, talk of ceasefire in the Middle East recalls memories of facilitating one in the Balkans three decades ago. As with most issues of war and peace, especially in places like the Balkans or …
Continue reading “Reflections on Ceasefires – From Ex-Yugoslavia to Gaza”
Thirty years ago this month the world watched as Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Yasser Arafat joined US President Clinton on the White House lawn to sign what became known as the Oslo Accord. Nowhere was that being more closely watched than at the Canadian Coast Guard College, where wary …
Continue reading “Musical Diplomacy in the Middle East: 1993-1995”
The rugged back roads between Montenegro and the valleys of Bosnia and Hercegovina are not for the faint-hearted. Particularly in winter, with isolated checkpoints manned by unsympathetic militia whose discipline and sobriety could be questionable. But in wartime you go with what you’ve got. The brutal tide of “ethnic cleansing” sweeping the former Yugoslavia had …
Continue reading “Death on St Sava’s Day – “Republika Srpska”, January 1993”
She was unremarkable in appearance, but there was something of steel and fire beneath that soft-spoken shyness. It was apparent that the young soldier holding her hand represented welcome moral support, but not an irreplaceable element in achieving her purpose. Though she would not have recognized it in herself, she had come to the local …