The last two days before the transition, March 17-18, after several days of arson and intimidation, IFOR decided to show that it was not indifferent to the misery of those who had accepted the assurance that Bosnia was to be a truly multi-ethnic state and that its forces would protect those who stayed behind. So the Italian-commanded troops were pressed into the defense of widows and orphans. Led by an officer chewing on a permanently unlit cigar, followed by contingents of red berets and soldiers with feathers coming out of their helmets, the unit, observed by a small group of French special forces in sneakers, started to arrest the suspected arsonists. With their self-conscious martial moves, dodging in and out of doorways, eyes fixed on rooftops long vacated by snipers, they started to arrest and frisk those denounced by the local population and march them away.

There was a bitter element of farce in this. The prisoners knew that they would soon be released to the Serbian police and freed into Serbian territory.