BOSNIA: ROVNO: BRITISH TROOPS COME TO AID OF CUT-OFF VILLAGES

(13 Dec 1995) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat

British troops in Bosnia have come to the aid of villagers cut off by snow.

The troops have been making sure people in Rovna near Gornji Vakuf - the headquarters of the British army in Bosnia -are getting vital supplies of firewood and food.

Three feet of snow has fallen in the area around Gornji Vakuf.

British troops stationed in the town are coming to the aid of one of the poorest villages they have come across so far.

In Rovna, where the soldiers are greeted with relief, sweets go down well with the local children.

The British are welcome here; coffee is served in the president's home to the troops before the supplies are handed out.

For the British troops, this is a different mission.

SOUNDBITE:
Well it's nice. At the end of the day it's nice to run around in tanks and war machinery. But at the end of the day we're all human, and this is a nice way to show these kids that at the end of the day people do care.

SUPER CAPTION: Corporal Aaron Scantlebury

They may be men of war, but the soldiers feel strongly about suffering.

SOUNDBITE:
We've heard about what they did to the kids around Vitez, especially the Muslim area, and how people can do that to kids in this day and age, the twentieth century, is well beyond the laws of whatever.
SUPER CAPTION: Private Jess James

Today the soldiers have brought with them clothing for the children. Village president Nejdad Hodzic explains this to the women. He is confident peace will hold.

SOUNDBITE:(Serbo-Croat)
I am one hundred per cent optimistic and I think it will get better given everything we have suffered.

SUPER CAPTION: Nejdad , president of Rovna.

After the formal signing in Paris, U-N control will be handed over to NATO. Britain is contributing 13-thousand troops to the 60-thousand strong force tasked with enforcing the peace. Getting out and about in the community may have to be scaled down.

A priest among the soldiers is nevertheless optimistic about forging closer ties with local people.

SOUNDBITE:
But actually when we go out as IFOR, there will be an opportunity to meet the local community, and we will still want to have as much to do with them as we possibly can, because obviously thats way we build up trust and we learn to work together. That's the only way that this agreement is ever going to work, with us as the police of it.

SUPER CAPTION: Padre Nick Cook, Light Infantry.

Most of the British troops in central Bosnia will simply change hats when IFOR comes into play.

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