Hagrup Haukland is a retired Norwegian army officer. In 1995 he was a sector commander for the

United Nations Protection Force The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav War ...

(UNPROFOR) in Bosnia heading 6,000 multinational troops including the 400 soldiers who witnessed the

Srebrenica Massacre The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...

.Norsk oberst får kritikk etter folkemord
/ref> After his military career he headed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

Aiding escapees in Lebanon

Haukland served as

battalion commander A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

with the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...

(UNIFIL) from May 1992 to May 1993. In September 1992 he aided two men who had escaped from the

Khiam detention center The Khiam detention center was an army barracks complex originally used by the French military in the 1930s in Khiam, French Lebanon. Following the establishment of independent Lebanon in 1946, it was used by the Lebanese military until the ...

in Lebanon where Haukland believed torture took place.Norske FN-soldater hjalp libanesiske fanger unna israelerne
/ref>
/ref> The escapees were transported out of southern Lebanon in a UN-marked

armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

and dressed in Norwegian military uniforms with UNIFIL insignia. The UN convoy passed through checkpoints set up by Israeli forces.

Srebrenica massacre

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

Haukland was commander of UNPROFOR's Sector North East in Bosnia when the Srebrenica Massacre took place in July 1995. When the massacre started Haukland was on vacation, which had been postponed several times to deal with events in the

United Nations Safe Area United Nations Safe Areas (UN Safe Areas) were humanitarian corridors established in 1993 in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War by several resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. On 16 April 1993, with t ...

s that he was responsible for. His deputy Colonel Charles Brantz phoned Haukland twice on 9 July 1995 to inform him of the growing crisis in Srebrenica. Haukland returned from vacation to his headquarters in

Tuzla Tuzla (, ) is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inhabitants. Tuzla is the economic, cultural, ed ...

on July 14. In a 2005 article in the Norwegian newspaper ''

Ny Tid ''Ny Tid'' (English: ''Modern Times Review'') is Norway's largest international quarterly review of non-fiction books – up to 50 in each issue. It is currently owned by Ny Tid & Orientering AS. ''Ny Tid'' is headed by the newspaper founder Tr ...

'' an unnamed officer who served on Haukland's multinational staff at Tuzla in 1995 cast doubt on the claim by Haukland and Norway's

Chief of Defence The chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national military position withi ...

Arne Solli that the attack on Srebrenica was a surprise. The article reported the anonymous officer as stating "We knew early that the Serbs were amassing (or positioning and increasing) their forces around Srebrenica. At the end of June Haukland informed headquarters in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

again and again of this". A 2006 article in ''Ny Tid'' says that "Haukland regularly informed Chief of Defence Arne Sollie about conditions in Haukland's sector. When Haukland departed Bosnia on his vacation to Norway, he travelled on the same airplane as the defence minister". A 2002 report by Netherlands Institute for War Documentation entitled '' Srebrenica: a ‘safe’ area'' did not apportion any blame for the massacre to Haukland. In 2005 Haukland said that he would welcome investigation of his role "in the handling of events related to the massacre".

References

{{reflist

Aiding escapees in Lebanon

Srebrenica massacre

References

See also