In October 1995, during the days when the Dayton Agreements were being discussed, I was driving through Sarajevo’s Serb neighborhood of Ilidza, providing situation awareness to a recently arrived UN Military Observer (UNMO), when we saw something simultaneously danger and unique – “The Chetnik Car”. That was something not all UNPROFOR staff had the chance to see … and the blue helmets that had actually seen it were horrified with the scene.
The name Chetnik invoked an old 19th Century Serbian Monarchy paramilitary organization, created to fight the Ottoman Empire. The name was used to unite the Serbs during the Balkan War, the First- and Second-Word Wars. Finally, on the Yugoslav conflict it was used to define Serb nationalist hardliners.
The Chetnik Car was a UN stolen pickup truck, painted of green camouflage with the Serbian crosses painted on the doors, exhibiting a real human skull wearing a blue helmet on the vehicle’s hood. On the back open cargo bay it had a heavy machine gun installed, and seats for an assault team. On the radio antenna of the vehicle there was a flag with the Serbian double-headed white eagle.
Of course, the skull with the blue helmet was the most significant message of that car – they hated UNPROFOR. The mere existence of the Chetnik Car was an outrage to the UN, but its users were radical fighters, just waiting for an excuse to engage the blue helmets in combat. The Serb authorities wouldn’t arrest them and for UNPROFOR to cease the car, it would have to use lethal force, which was not going to happen.
We were inside of an overloaded Toyota Land Cruiser, driving slowly among the mortar craters of Ilidza streets. When we crossed our path with the Chetnik Car, several fighters, wearing black tactical uniforms, moved out of the car towards the UNMO vehicle pointing their rifles.
We just kept moving slowly but steadily away from Ilidza towards the French checkpoint at the entrance of Sarajevo. The Chetniks demonstrated very noisily their disapproval for UN presence in Ilidza, but let us go through, because UNMO officers operate unarmed; hence we were not worth engaging.
Having the Chetnik Car on our tail was a distinctive experience; not to be repeated again.
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