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	Hi! Over the next month or so I am going to make available my personal diary and journal put together last year (1995) during a six month mission with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Former Yugoslavia. In June last year while everyone else was celebrating fifty years since the end of the Second World War, I suddenly found myself packing my bags and heading off to war.
Summary of Agreement Dayton Peaces Talks	I was based in Pale, in the Bosnian Serb territory. My mission put me in the middle of some of the momentous events of this war, particularly the fall of Srebrenica and later, the biggest refugee exodus in Europe since the Second World War. I returned to Melbourne at the end of December, when the NATO bombing of Pale and district, preceded a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the area around Sarajevo and a suspension of active hostilities with the signing of the Dayton Agreement.
	I will take you into Sarajevo and give you a glimpse of life in the middle of the horror of war. I'll introduce you to some of the people I met, such as General Mladic, Commander of the Bosnian Serb army, and take you across the frontline during some of the most intense fighting. You will find out about the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC, which has a special role under international humanitarian law to act as a neutral intermediary in armed conflict. The Geneva Conventions set out our mandate and our tasks and we seek to ensure compliance with those provisions in the treatment of prisoners, wounded and innocent civilians. If you are wanting to know "Who is to blame?" or "Who started it?" I am afraid I will not be providing answers. For several reasons. First of all, my job was not to help those who deserved it, or to make judgements about who was right or wrong. I had one task and that was to help the victims of war irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious background. My colleagues and I worked on all sides, frequently crossing from one side to the other through "no-man's-land". In those circumstances being seen as neutral is a matter of life and death. My friends are still there working and their safety and success depends, like mine did, on trust and credibility built up over a long period. There are two other reasons why I can't ascribe blame or make political statements. Firstly, because, to be honest, I can't really explain or fully understand the reasons for this war. There are plenty with me in this. Secondly, the pain and suffering is so overwhelming on all sides of the conflict that ascribing blame becomes irrelevant. War is a nightmare for everyone in the Bosnian conflict. We tried to do some things to alleviate this for the victims. I trust you will enjoy reading this personal account. I hope you will find the ethical and personal dilemas I faced worth thinking and talking about. I'm looking forward to your responses, questions and comments. If you have stayed with me so far you must have a few questions. Who am I, where did I go and why did I do it? I have spent most of my working life as a Geography and History teacher in secondary schools in the state of Victoria. After a long stint as a Curriculum Consultant I joined the Australian Red Cross as Manager of their Youth and Education Services. This included work we undertook with the Australian Defence Forces in teaching about the Geneva Conventions and the legal requirements on all combatants as set out in international humanitarian law. I indicated I would be available for an overseas posting some time in the future, but was stunned when an urgent call came for a secondment to the ICRC based in Pale. Luckily my wife Kay is the kind of person who says "Why not?", and was prepared to parent my three sons aged 14,12 and 8 single-handed for six months. If you look at the accompanying map you will see the towns of Pale, Trebinje, Bijeljina and Banja Luka. This was where I was based, covering all of the Bosnian Serb held area. I spent some time in the Serb held territory in Croatia, in Sarajevo and in Zenica as well. "Why did you go?" Very good question. It was one I asked myself as I flew in comfort from Tullamarine Airport bound for Geneva, the first stop en route to Zagreb then overland into Bosnia. Well... I couldn't say no. I felt everything I had been doing for the last couple of years had led me to this point. There was nothing I wanted to do more than this and in the two weeks I had to think between getting the request and getting on the plane I kept thinking "This is a dream, it can't be real". My first experience of the ground shattering pounding of heavy artillery, the roar of multiple rocket launchers and the crackle of semi-automatic gunfire brought me back to reality in my first week in Bosnia. "Well, guess what, I'm in a war!" More of that next week. Stuart Trist

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