Meet a real UN Peacekeeper on January 27, 2024!
Civitas has scheduled its first event for 2024 on Saturday, January 27 from 10:00 am until noon at Crossroads College Preparatory School. We are pleased to have Roel Harryvan, a former UN Peacekeeper through the Royal Netherlands Army, scheduled to talk to students. Roel and his family have lived in St. Louis since 1995 so Roel could be the Honorary Consul for the Netherlands, his home country, covering Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Join us to hear Roel talk about all of his adventures, both as a UN Peacekeeper and as an Honorary Consul. Roel will share updates of current UN Peacekeeping endeavors and answer any questions you have about his past and current experiences working to bridge cultures and foster peace.
Click here to sign up for this exciting guest speaker on Saturday, January 27.
Background information on UN Peacekeeping Missions -- research by Civitas Students
UN Peacekeepers in Balkans in 1990s
(see map below)
by Emily Nguyen; Liberty High School, 2026
The Bosnian War began in 1992, arising from ethno-nationalistic tensions between the Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, regarding their independence from Yugoslavia. The Bosnians were allied with the Croats, fighting for independence from Yugoslavia, against the Serbs, who opposed independence.
During the war, the United Nations established safe zones, helping refugees wanting to flee the area. In 1995, the Serbs took over one of the UN safe zones in Srebrenica, an eastern Bosnian town. The UN safe zone soldiers were outnumbered by the Serb forces, who executed 8,000 Bosnian men and boys.
Following this massacre, a peace plan was proposed, leading to December of 1995, where the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia signed a Peace Agreement that covered several issues regarding military, law and order, and human rights.
On December 21st, 1995, by Resolution 1035, the Security Council created the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or UNMIBH.
The mandate of the UNMIBH was to oversee and monitor law and order enforced in Bosnia by the country’s local police and judicial system. The UNMIBH would downsize the local police force, and employ and train multi-ethnic and underrepresented officers, in an attempt to rid of the discrimination by the previously mono-ethnic police.
Under the UNMIBH, remedies and investigations for human rights violations, specifically by police misconduct, would be established. Other programs and units were created to monitor the court system and the relationship between the police and criminal justice system.
Following its success, the UNMIBH was terminated on December 31st, 2002, when it was succeeded by the European Union Police Mission.
 United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina
by Augustus Farrell; St. Francis Borgia, 2026
Yugoslavia consisted of six constituent republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. As a result of independence movements in the Yugoslavian Republic, the Bosnian War started on April 6, 1992. Since the Serbs had the majority of power in Yugoslavia, they wished to hold on to it. Montenegro peacefully seceded, but the Serbians felt different about Bosnian, Herzegovinian, and Croat independence. Fueled by growing Serbian nationalism, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing, the Republika Srpska was created. Slobodan Milošević, a Serbian-Yugoslav politician, was the only leader to recognize the Republika Srpska.
All sides committed heinous war crimes, but the Serbs (especially those in Srpska) are commonly regarded as “the worst.” Bosnian Serbs targeted civilians. Yet, for example, when Yugoslav (Serbia and Montenegro) forces retreated from the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, a Bosniak army executed them. No side was innocent.
The UN sent food, medicine, and peacekeeping soldiers in July of 1992, to Bosnia, while also cutting off weapon trades. However, the situation only gets worse. UN peacekeepers stuck to their neutrality and didn’t intervene. The Croats, a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, started a civil war within a civil war. In March of 1994, President Clinton negotiated a deal between the two, which ended the “war within a war.” Bosnian Serbs stole weapons from the UN and used them to kill civilians. NATO intervened with airstrikes. Bosnian Serbs took UN peacekeepers hostage and shot down an F-16. The Serbs were yet to see major resistance. Their final plan was: kick the UN out and take over. They targeted UN designated safe zones. 10,000 Bosniaks were unarmed but protected by UN forces. On July 11, 1995, 2,000 Serb soldiers committed the deadliest genocide since World War 2, killing and capturing over 8,000 Bosniaks and peacekeepers.
In late 1995, the US replaced the UN’s involvement in the area. The tide of the war turns, and the Dayton Accords are signed in December, 1995, by Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina was enacted at the same time. Following the success of the mission, the UNMIBH was terminated on December 31, 2002.
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