by Yvonne Rademacher

02 September 2000

One of my first tasks as a UN Volunteer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bosnia was to assist three brothers who were stranded on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Their parents had already returned to their pre-war homes, but the brothers, who had stayed in Serbia until the end of the school year, had no border-crossing documents to join the family in their little hometown just three kilometres from the mountainous border checkpoint. I was assigned to support them in obtaining those documents. It was hard to explain to them that they would have to wait for a few weeks to receive clearance from the Croatian Government. From where they were staying -- in a destroyed house just a short walk from the border crossing -- they were actually able to see their little hometown. Their mother and grandmother would come every day, if possible, to bring them food. I went to see them every other day to keep them updated on their applications and brought a few humanitarian items to make their stay a bit more comfortable. It took me quite some persuasion for them not to cross the border at night, as this would have made them criminals -- a midnight flight over the frontier would have most probably resulted in a prison sentence.

This was only one of the many tasks that I had been assigned as a UNHCR field officer in the area. However, the hands-on work with UNHCR persons of concern, such as refugees and displaced persons, remained the most enjoyable and rewarding part of my work. After six weeks the three brothers finally received clearance. I picked them up in the morning to take them to the border and monitored their successful crossing. They were so scared and could not believe that they would finally be reunited with their family. One year later, even though I now work in the far north of the country, I still stop by their house when I am in the area. It was a small success story but one that puts humanitarian relief work into perspective. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where progress is only slow to detect, it is individual stories like these that have made our work worthwhile.

Two months after starting with UNHCR as a field officer, I was moved on to work as head of a small satellite office and acting head of another satellite office in an adjacent area. While I had learned a lot in the previous position, this new post constituted a true challenge: we covered five municipalities (with the exception of one, all located in the Republika Srpska -- the Serb dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina), and by spring 2000 there were over 3,500 spontaneous minority returnees. To cover the needs of these people adequately with a small team of five people has truly never left us a minute of boredom. Liaising with local authorities and ensuring their adherence to human rights standards within the UNHCR mandate, briefing international donor delegations and other government representatives, assessing returnee needs and responding with appropriate material assistance as well as coordinating international assistance sums up the broad range of our work.

My UNV position has allowed me to move closer to what I had been trained to do as an international human rights lawyer. As a matter of fact, I have enjoyed my work with UNHCR so much that I think I have already found my dream job. A lot of people seem to think that international relief work is very glamorous. Anyone who is involved in this kind of work will know otherwise. The reality is irregular, often very long working hours, and often difficult or even dangerous living conditions. And the moments -- when women talk about how they were raped during the war or when concentration camp survivors rebuild their homes right next to thei