More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 75

Over the next few weeks, allmediascotland.com is to publish, each weekday, edited extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris. ‘More thrills than skills: A half-life in iournalism’, is being scheduled for publication next year.

TURKEY’S Prime Minister, Tansu Ciller, pushed hard for the incorporation of Turkish troops into the UN force. I found the Turkish approach to peacekeeping in Bosnia helpful, restrained and constructive. It maintained a distance from other powers such as Iran whose intervention was not so benign.

That probably helped stem growth of fundamentalism in Bosnia.

And we should not forget the good intentions of Bangladeshi troops in Bihac; the Egyptians in Sarajevo and the Jordanians in Croatia. However, in military terms, the Turks were by far the most effective.