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The Ghosts of Medak Pocket

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The Balkans.

A small region of the world, with a long and blood-soaked history of death and violence. It was in the Balkans where the two shots that killed Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were fired, dragging the world in to the hell of the First World War. Endless wars over faith, and ethnicity have been fought in this area. If one looks at the history, it would almost seem as though there has never been peace there.

At the end of the Second World War, communist partisan leader Josip Broz Tito declared himself the leader of a region encompassing a number of ethnic groups which he declared The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Through a huge amount of oppression, Tito was able to control the tensions between the two primary ethnic groups in the area: the Serbians, and the Croatians. As one of the more open communist societies in the world, Yugoslavia saw peace for a lengthy period in the 20th Century.

However, with Tito’s death in 1980, his work quickly began to fall apart. A Croatian independence group had ironically enough, formed in Canada, taking advantage of the country’s Multiculturalism policies. This group returned to Yugoslavia, and eventually took power in Croatia, which would latter separate from the Serbian dominated Yugoslavia. This would set off a chain reaction of separations, eventually leading to the total collapse of Yugoslavia, and the rapid rise of armed ethnic conflict.

In Canada, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, urged by his wife who was a Serbian born in the Former Yugoslavia, ordered the rapid deployment of Canadian Forces to the region as part of the newly established United Nations Protection Force, or UNPROFOR.
However, the Canadian Forces of the 1990s were in no condition to perform this mission. With the reduction of funding and manpower due to the end of the Cold War, and a number of Peacekeeping missions already being contributed to, the deployment to Yugoslavia would be a key factor to the “Dark Days of the Canadian Forces.”

Little known to the public, the Canadian Forces was rapidly being gutted by those at the top of its hierarchy. Funding was being spent on frivolous things like retirement parades, while the equipment was outdated, and the manpower was dwindling. The Canadian Forces Regular force outnumbered the Primary Reserve. A $100,000 dollar program to develop a Kevlar Helmet was cancelled, but one of the ministers used the funding to renovate his office, at the cost of $600,000! The Armoured Transports of the CF had weak aluminum hulls, and the soldiers didn’t even have a proper camouflage pattern for their uniforms! In one case, a Pro-Quebecois Nationalist in the upper offices of the CF announced that all Maple Syrup supplied to the CF would come from Quebec instead of New Brunswick, much to the ire of Canadian Forces Personnel in the field, who would have much rather had helmet that could stop bullets!
In addition to this, the United Nations was rapidly discovering that Peacekeeping was undergoing a rapid change. The rules of engagement were rapidly becoming outdated when deploying to areas where neither side wanted the UN Peacekeepers there. For many contributing nations to UNPROFOR, the soldiers were unmotivated, and often would flee when force was shown to them by either side.

By 1993, the situation was looking grim for UNPROFOR. Little effort was being made to stabilize the region, Ethnic cleansing was rampant and morale was low. In spite of this, the Canadian Forces had shown their tenacity, through the siege of Sarajevo, and in their general peacekeeping duties.
When Croatian forces began a major operation in the Medak Pocket region in September of 1993, French General Jean Cot knew he would have to make a major effort to save the credibility of UNPROFOR. With UN troops regularly retreating when threatened with attack, Cot called upon what he considered to be his “SWAT Team”: the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

Before the deployment of the Second Battalion, Colonel Jim Calvin knew the situation in Yugoslavia was bad. And to make matters worse, the vast majority of soldiers in his battalion were Reservists, mostly college students who were waiting for what they expected to be a peaceful deployment. Calvin knew what they, and the Canadian public didn’t know: They were going to have to be more than Peacekeepers in Yugoslavia. Calvin trained his soldiers for war.
During Operation Medak Pocket, The Patricias deployed themselves in between Serbs and Croatians. Their mission was to form a buffer-zone. Tensions were high, and excuses for violating a cease-fire were being made by both sides. Calvin discovered during one meeting with the Croats, that the Croatian Military had access to Satellite photos of Serbian positions, supplied to them secretly by the United States Government. The situation in the Serbian Krajina was rapidly getting out of hand, and the UN had to act fast.

The plan was for the Croatian forces to fall back as the Patricias advanced. However, the Canadians found themselves taking deliberate fire from the Croats. Calvin ordered warning shots fired. One soldier fired, then another, and another, and another, until soon the entire Canadian line was blasting away at the Croats, joined in by the 20mm canons of the French APC’s supporting them. The Canadians wouldn’t run. They were there to stay.
As the Canadians dug in, they began taking artillery and small arms fire from the Croatians. The Canadians held their ground and began to fire at the attacking Croats. By the end of the battle, 4 Canadians were wounded, but they estimated that they had killed or wounded 27 Croatians.
After an agreement between Calvin and the Croatian Commander, the Canadians began advancing towards the village of Medak. However, they were stopped by a Croat roadblock, defended with landmines, and tanks.

The Croat commander of the roadblock claimed he had no knowledge of orders to let the Canadians pass, but Calvin could see the smoke rising from the villages behind them. He knew what was happening: The Canadians were being deliberately delayed, so the Croats could finish ethnically cleansing the area of Serbians. Thinking fast, Calvin held an impromptu Press Conference with some war correspondents being attached to the UN forces. He accused the Croats of holding the Canadians up, so they could finish killing everyone in the region. The Croatian commander rapidly ordered the Roadblock torn down, and the Canadians quickly entered the region.

Sadly, it was too late. The Canadians discovered the region was completely empty. Buildings had been torn down, livestock killed, and only a few bodies and piles of used rubber gloves were found, evidence of a major ethnic cleansing operation in the area. Two women were found in the process of being burned, their bodies hot enough to melt the body bags. Had the Croatians held them up longer, there would have been no evidence left.
However, the heroism of the Patricia’s would go unnoticed. With the events of Somalia in the minds of the Canadian population, the actions of the Canadians were denied by both the Canadian and Croatian governments.

PTSD, substance abuse and scores of other problems hit the Canadian Forces. Their actions covered up, many of the Patricia’s soon developed medical problems related to their PTSD, and chemicals in the soil they used to fill sandbags. But any attempts to get proper pensions and compensation were blocked and denied by the Canadian Government.

It wasn’t until 2002 that the Canadian Government finally gave Jim Calvin and the Patricias the respect and honor they were owed. They were presented with the Commander-in-Chief’s Unit Commendation by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, the Colonel-in-Chief of the PPCLI in a huge ceremony.
Sadly, for many Veterans of the 2nd Battalion, it was an honor that came too late. Haunted by what they had seen, many were taken by substance abuse, by illness, homelessness or by suicide. They would never see their sacrifice honored.

They, along with the innocent civilians who lived in the region, will forever be known, as “The Ghosts of Medak Pocket”

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DppDiX…

For more information, I highly recommend the excellent book “The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada’s Secret War” by Carol Off.

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It's been a while since I posted any proper art to the account, and this was an old picture I drew a while ago and was waiting for a good time to put up.)
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