Shelter at the power plant by James Mason (original) (raw)

'93	James Mason

Shelter at the power plant

near Kakanj, Bosnia

Croats driven out of the Kakanj area by the seventh brigade and the 16th Krajisnici were savvy enough to read the situation in the Lasva Valley. A large group headed for the Kakanj electrical generating facility and begged the UN, or more accurately, the French Foreign Legion, for protection. The Legion was assigned to protect the power plant from those who would have otherwise wrecked it. They let the refugees in and made them as comfortable as possible. This was against UN policy, but no UN bureaucrat had the guts to protest. There were these huge rooms with pipes and generators with people sleeping all over the floor. If the Legionaires thought the media was a little too aggressive they would ask us to "be respectful." This war would have been over in two months if the conduct of it had been handed over to the British Army and the French Foreign Legion. With Otto von Hapsburg in charge.

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