As prescribed on their “job description”, United Nations’ Military Observers have to negotiate compromised solutions between the warring factions. Those negotiations are normally conducted in meetings, with people that barely know each other; or even hate one another. Making arrangements with only one of the belligerents tend to be easier, but not necessarily more relaxed.
Back in 1995, during the Bosnian conflict, I recall a meeting with Serbs at Lukavica Barracs, which became a very educative Lesson Learned for further missions.
As the local protocol dictated, before talking business one had to discuss fait-divers. The Serbs tried to speak in English, as a gesture of politeness. The presence of a Portuguese officer was not very common and a good theme to start chatting. Portugal was a friendly country for the Serbs, because it was a small western European Christian country, without any particular interest in Bosnia. Furthermore, the Serbs in general were sport lovers and the name of the Portuguese football player – Luis Figo – jumped immediately to the table. There was also a number of Serbian football players that were, or had been, playing in Portuguese Teams at the time, but Alex didn’t have enough knowledge of football to support that conversation. Alex felt very embarrassed of his lack of football knowledge and took note of another lesson regarding negotiations with warring factions:
Lesson Learned – “Study the sportive history of the Host Nation and its relations with your own Nation. It is not enough to know the Host Nation’s history and culture heritage, because no one will be discussing that at the negotiation table. Knowing the Host Nation’s preferred sport, its athletes and the correspondence with the Troop Contributing Country is essential to break the ice and start a profitable negotiation.”
OPen samento 