Bosnia-Herzegovina
(and environs)
1997 - 1998
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Rick and Emily were in the Balkans at different times. Emily was on a fact-finding visit as a professional staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Rick was there as deputy chief of a joint CIA-DOD operations team to locate and arrest five Persons Indicted For War Crimes - more commonly called PIFWCs.
His book on that effort on sale now
St Mark's Church in neighboring Zagreb, Croatia
As the sign says, welcome to Sarajevo
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Apartment building damage in Sarajevo
Heightened Sarajevo walls
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Destruction in Sarajevo
Parliament building in Sarajevo
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Kids in what was "sniper alley" in Sarajevo
Emily in market area of Sarajevo
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Bazaar in Sarajevo
Emily with escorts at Sarajevo air base
Emily's business card
Sarajevo air base
Ethnic cleansing outside Sarajevo
Ethnic cleansing outside Sarajevo
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Emily in bazaar in Sarajevo
Sarajevo air base
She got her own jet!!
Scenic Sarajevo
Ethnic cleansing outside Sarajevo
Ethnic cleansing outside Sarajevo
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| On the hunt for our assigned five PIFWCs - we eventually got them all (plus one other who gave himself up) |
Tuzla air base - our own two helicopters
Serbian area
Outside Banja Luka - pretty shot up
Bijeljina
Mostar
Bridge over the Sava River at Brcko - Croatia on the other side.
A possible PIFWC escape route
Tough way to grow up
Brcko
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Serb equipment
Serbian area
Bosanski Samac - home of four of our PIFWCs
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Blagoje Simic - serving sentence in UK until 2016
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Stefan Todorovic - served 7 of 10 years, committed suicide (no loss)
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Miroslav Tadic - served 8 years, now out
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Simo Zaric - served 6 years, now out, elected deputy mayor of Bosanski Samac in 2010
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Milan Simic - (not one of our targets), served 5 years, now out
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Bijeljina - home of the worst PIFWC Goran Jelisic
Goran Jelisic - taken down by my team in January 1998.
Acquitted on the count of genocide but sentenced to 40 years in prison for crimes against humanity and for serious breaches of the laws and customs of war. |
Serbian area
Tough way to grow up
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Not an uncommon scene on the roads near the Line of Demarcation betweeen Bosnian and Serb areas
Tuzla
Tuzla from one of our helicopters
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Central Tuzla
The Hotel Tuzla - the best bar in town
Central Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
After the fighting - back to basics
Operations room - Tuzla
My room - Tuzla
SFOR identification
Getting onto Tuzla air base
not easy with our semi-valid identifications....
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Central Tuzla
Tuzla
Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Ethnic cleansing outside Tuzla
Trains in Bosnia
Operations room - Tuzla
US forces pass
Getting onto Tuzla air base
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UPDATE - July 21, 2008
To the left is a bottle of Dingac (DING-gatch), a pleasant Croatian wine that we were partial to during our stints in Bosnia. The joys of being assigned to the CIA station - no General Order Number One (the military prohibition on alcohol).
We brought a bottle home in 1998 with the hopes of toasting the imminent capture of Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian war criminal number one. While Rick's team was successful in capturing the lower level functionaries, Karadzic and his military cohort, General Ratko Mladic, managed to escape to Serbia.
Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade today. We opened the bottle and drank half.
Ratko Mladic is still at large (see update below).
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UPDATE - May 26, 2011
Ratko Mladic was arrested in Serbia today.
Emily I will be toasting his detention with the remaining Dingac. This closes the Bosnia-Herzegovina chapter of our careers.
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