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Crober, Francis Paul: my Bosnian War recollections (March 22, 2011)

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ABSTRACT: 00:00-17:00 – Statement of names, places and collection of oral consent. Crober discusses his career prior to Bosnia. Some discussion of strategic factors affecting the Bosnia deployment (Transport, Forces Reorganization, Political Factors, Winding down of Germany) 17:00- 22:00 - Discussion of motivation to go to Bosnia, discussion of his duties in Bosnia as operations officer and how he came about getting them and how he executed them. 22:00 – 24:48 – Some initial discussion of other UNPROFOR personnel with which Crober was working. 24:48-27:33 - Discussion of incidents in Sarajevo. Italian Aircraft being shot down; Canadian involvement in relieving a blockade into Sarajevo and political factors affecting the CF in Bosnia; Discusses effect on Morale. 27:33-31:26 - Inital discussion of CF operations around Sarajevo, including operations around the two hospitals in Sarajevo. Discussion of inter-ethnic relations on the ground in Bosnia. Mentions a man called Victor. 31:26 – 45:35 – Discussion of 7th Muslim Brigade, Muslims from elsewhere who had come to fight with Bosniac Muslims. Mentions importance of the UN mission to protecting Bosnian Muslims. Draws comparison with current operations in Libya. Discussion of use of air evacuation of casualties. Discussion of 7th Muslim Brigade attack on humanitarian convoy. Mentions defence of Benedictine monastery from 7th Muslim Brigade attacks. Egyptian commander. Discussion of composition of the 7th Muslim Brigade. Mentions that many JNA infantry were Muslim and very good. Discusses a few incidents involving the 7th Muslim Brigade, whom he describes as including a number of fundamentalists “of the kind we are very familiar with today.” Discussion of being held hostage, along with several UN staff officers. “Nobody from [The other groups] would think of doing that”. Izebegovic’s intervention and subsequent execution of hostage takers “shot while escaping”. Talks about 7th Muslim Brigade abusing women and subsequent standoff. Lesson of “East meets West” and digression on Islam and Europe. Discussion of 7th Islamic brigade being kicked out. Talks about being rescued by Danny Furman, an ex-Mossad UN Civil Affairs staff officer, digression on the situation of Jews in the former Jugoslavia. 45:35 –49:00 – Discussion of living conditions in Sarajevo and issues surrounding supply of gas to the city. Comparison with the living conditions in Vukovar, due to Serb shelling. Discussion of depiction of Serbs as aggressors in Bosnia and Kosovo. Crober emphasises that all sides were involved in heavy Ethnic cleansing and mass-murder. 49:00-53:00 – Differences between other UN missions and Bosnia. Crober points out that a “regular UN deployment” was quite a rare thing. Discussion of British army in Cyprus and the conditions on the ground there being different from other deployments. Discusses the different types of UN peacekeeping and peacemaking operations going on in Bosnia at the time. 55:30 – 67:59 – Discussion of professionalism. Large amount of praise for the leadership of Colonel Calvin at Medak. Discussion of dated equipment, although weapons were good and training even better, even in times of restraint. Discussion of incidents at hospitals where the R22eme had a company (Part of CANBAT 2 under 12 RBC). Discussion of the conditions there and how things were hushed up. Discusses how the R22eme company at the hospital was under-staffed and “beat into the ground” as a result of being under staffed and under over stretched. Leadership issues in CF are also talked about. Emphasis on need for UN peacekeepers to be well trained soldiers along with need for good training. Crober goes into further discussion of CANBAT 2’s operations. Discussion of political interference on the kind of tasks they could and could not do. Discussion of use of non-infantry troops as infantry and of the stresses of operating in a theatre like Bosnia. 68:00 – 69:56 - Digression on PTSD and how it affected the job of the Strathcona’s (Canadian armoured regiment) CO at the time, discussion of PTSD debrieifings and how soldiers deal with what they see and who they will tell about their experiences. Touches on issue of compartmentalization in order to stay sane. 69:57-72:22 – Discussion of how the CF changed after Bosnia and the Cold War. Discussion of how politicians were unresponsive to CF’s needs. Discussion of how staff system changed, improvements in training, complete change in the Army since 1990. 72:22-78:38 – Discusses working with other UNPROFOR contingents. Crober expresses a lot of admiration for the British Army, knew “how to handle them.” Discusses effect of not working with British Army. Discussion of Canada in relation into the United States when it comes to defence relations. French are discussed as being very good in Bosnia, due to their being French Foreign Legion. Dutch and Belgians were conscripts and were not particularly good. Digression on how conscripts are not very good at peace-keeping, due to their lack of experience and motivation. Names other contingents that had conscripts. Scandinavian contingents are spoken of very highly. 78:38- 79:00 – Digression re time Crober has left. Crober offers to respond to further questions by email and agrees to answer a couple more questions during Porta’s interview. 79:00 – 83:17 - Further discussion of working with ethnic paramilitary factions. Discussion of meeting Mladic, dangers of Snipers, discussion of Croatian massacres at Vares and Stupni-Do. 83:17 - 84:55 - Discussion of how Crober is reluctant to be associated with the UN. Crober has very harsh criticism for the UN representative in Bosnia. 84:55 – 86:18 End of interview, signing of release form, Porta confirms Crober’s permission to keep the interview, in light of some the statements he made during the interview. Crober re-affirms his permission. End of interview.

Interviewer: Porta, Rowan

An interview/narrative of Francis Paul's experiences in the former Yugoslavia. Interview took place on March 22, 2011.

Interviewee: Crober, Francis Paul

In Collection:
Contributor Subject Language Keyword Date created Relation Resource type Rights statement Extent
  • 1 sound recording (MP3)
Geographic Coverage Coordinates
  • 43.84864, 18.35644
  • 60.10867, -113.64258
  • 44, 19.75
  • 54.75844, -2.69531
Additional physical characteristics
  • Original sound recording (WMA) also available.
Physical Repository Collection
  • Canadian Military Oral History Collection
Provider Genre Archival item identifier
  • CFP_692
Fonds title Fonds identifier Is referenced by Date digitized
  • April 1, 2011
Technical note
  • Digital sound recording in .mp3 format at 128 kbps and 44 kHz. Recorded in digital format by interviewer, technical and cataloguing metadata provided by JF and JP. Interview recorded in digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2011. Migration metadata by KD and MT.
Rights
  • This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca
DOI
Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Actions
file details SC141_MilitaryOralHistory_GenericThumbnail
file details Crober_F_0692_01.mp3