The year in review-Prevlaka

Prevlaka

PEACEKEEPING THAT LIVES UP
TO ITS NAME
By Richard Calver, Political Adviser,
United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP)

On a clear day, they say, you can see for miles - and from a windswept ridge in southern Croatia, down by the border with Montenegro, the saying certainly holds true. You can see all the way down Kotor Bay, the deepest natural fjord on the Adriatic coast. Far off in the heat haze lies the town of Tivat, home port to the Yugoslav navy.

Along the western edge of the bay and straddling the border between Croatia and Montenegro, up into the inhospitable mountains of southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka - UNMOP - keeps patient watch.

The smallest of the UN peacekeeping missions, UNMOP monitors the demilitarization of 150 square kilometres of territory on both sides of the border, including the strategically sensitive Cape Ostra on the western side of Kotor Bay.

When former Yugoslavia broke up in 1991, Ostra became a bone of contention. Croatia claimed the land but Yugoslavia asserted ownership of the naval base there. When the Yugoslav military abandoned it, they handed over responsibility for the base to the UN, expecting that the UN would remain as temporary custodian until Croatia and Yugoslavia could resolve the related issues of ownership of the territory and security of the bay.

As a result, UN military observers have been on Prevlaka since 20 October 1992. Today peace abounds, so the work of the 27 observers, who come from 25 countries, is mostly routine. But there have been anxious times.

During the war of 1991-95, Croatia and Yugoslavia made no progress in resolving the Prevlaka dispute. Post-Dayton, they signed an agreement to normalize relations but they did not even begin to discuss Prevlaka directly until 1998, and even that process was cut short by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

During and after the bombing, UNMOP played a key role in maintaining stability in the border region, acting as a go-between and helping to allay fears and lower tensions.

These days, UNMOP has the unusual distinction of finding itself mandated to carry out peacekeeping duties in the middle of a tourist zone. Both Croatia and Montenegro place great stock in developing their tourism industries after a decade of war and suspicion, and both acknowledge the indirect role the UN plays by contributing to stability along the border.

Prevlaka is unique among the Balkan disputes of the past decade in that it has remained entirely bilateral, without the active involvement of the international community in the search for a solution. As a result, the UN is not involved at the political level - responsibility for finding a solution rests squarely with the governments of Croatia and Yugoslavia.

So long as they remain content to have a peacekeeping mission along their southern border, and for as long as they remain unable to agree on the measures necessary to determine ownership of the peninsula and provide security for Kotor Bay, UNMOP seems likely to remain where it is.