Battle of Medak Pocket: What if the Serbs decided to get involved?

Please see the link below for more information about this forgotten battle:


Reviewing this video, I have to ask what would have happened if the Serb forces decided to move against the Canadian peacekeepers stationed on the hill overlooking the battle? Or what would have happened if the Serb forces, in order to save the Serb village from being wiped out, took their own actions, while the Croats were using stalling tactics against Canadian peacekeepers after the third firefight? What would have happened if efforts to save the Serb village resulted in hostile contact with the Canadians? There probably would have been a much bigger and more public UN/NATO response against the Serb forces in Croatia if this did happen. In reality, the Serbs showed much restraint in this incident, probably because they were aware of this fact. In this incident, the real bad guys were the Croats, but it did not fit into the bigger political narrative of the "good guys" (which is not always true), so it was written in the pages of forgotten history.

This incident may give us a little insight on what could have happened if Dutch UN forces did make an effort to resist Bosnian Serb entry into Srebenica during the Bosnian war, though the composition of the Dutch peacekeeping forces was probably not robust enough to be have been able to do much. The best they could have done is perhaps provide an escape corridor for escaping residents and to hold off hostile Bosnian Serb forces as they applied pressure on the city.

Bosnia showed us they you cannot keep peace if you are not willing to make peace.


Brian Ghilliotti
 
Reviewing this video, I have to ask what would have happened if the Serb forces decided to move against the Canadian peacekeepers stationed on the hill overlooking the battle? Or what would have happened if the Serb forces, in order to save the Serb village from being wiped out, took their own actions, while the Croats were using stalling tactics against Canadian peacekeepers after the third firefight? What would have happened if efforts to save the Serb village resulted in hostile contact with the Canadians? There probably would have been a much bigger and more public UN/NATO response against the Serb forces in Croatia if this did happen.

It's an interesting question, but not sure I really understand the premise...why would the Serb forces move against the Canadian peacekeepers, who are currently being attacked by the Croats? Why would they team up with the enemy forces to screw over a group of international peacekeepers?
 
Not sure what would motivate Serbs to fight at the tail end of the Battle for the Medak Pocket????????
It was a miserable 4-way war.
By the last few days, most of the Serbian civilians (in the Medak Pocket) had been slaughtered. Croats were only burning bodies to destroy evidence of their war crimes.
Serbian leaders had already signed truces that gave them control of the Pocket.
Canadian soldiers did the dirty work of pushing Croats out of the Pocket. After gaining control, Canadian soldiers found massive amounts of evidence (partially-burnt bodies and houses) of Croatian war-crimes.
Sitting back was the best option for Serbians late in the Battle for the Medak Pocket.
 
It's an interesting question, but not sure I really understand the premise...why would the Serb forces move against the Canadian peacekeepers, who are currently being attacked by the Croats? Why would they team up with the enemy forces to screw over a group of international peacekeepers?


If there was a Serb mis-perception that the Canadians were just stalling, out of anti-Serb bias, and letting the Croat militia cleanse the villages that the Canadian peacekeepers were "trying to reach", but could not, under Croat pressure. I do not think either ethnic militia trusted the peacekeepers very much.

Brian Ghilliotti
 
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