The forgotten faith of locally recruited conflict zone interpreters. A case study of interpreters in the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in the 1990s.

Although present on the battlefield since Roman times, interpreters and translators working in conflict zones have rarely been considered by scholars and practitioners, at least until the death toll among interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan staggered in the years 2000s. This situation prompted a reflection on this “less glamorous” form of interpreting along with their roles, practice and dangerous position. Scholars, professional organisations and veterans’ associations have since been fighting for interpreters’ protection, social security and relocation in the short-term, but little attention has been paid to interpreters’ position in the long term, to understand how and whether their perception and status change when cannonballs have long stopped firing. To answer this question, this paper considers the experience of locally recruited interpreters who worked for peacekeeping and military missions to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in the 1990s. After presenting the context of their deployment, we will discuss the status former conflict zone interpreters have in nowadays Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the possible reasons behind it, to point out useful lessons that can predict interpreters’ positioning in post-war countries as well as improve their long-term management in the future.