Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina ? For many here, the United Nations flag that has flown over Bosnia for a decade will forever be stained with the blood of 8,000 Muslims killed in Europe’s worst massacre since World War II.

The light-blue U.N. flag comes down for the final time Tuesday, to be replaced by the European Union’s dark blue banner. Those who remember Srebrenica, when Serbs massacred Muslim men and boys while U.N. peacekeepers stood by, have no fondness for it.

“Let them go, and show them the door,” said Sabra Kulenovic, a 53-year old survivor of the July 1995 slaughter. Zineta Mujic, who lost her 25-year old son and 13 other family members at Srebrenica, described the U.N. tenure in Bosnia as “a catastrophe.”

But others have kinder memories as the United Nations leaves what has been one of its most difficult and painful peacekeeping missions with a postwar success. It overhauled police and border forces in efforts to steer the country toward normality.

And though an internationally appointed administrator still oversees Bosnia and NATO-led peacekeepers remain as the ultimate deterrent, many credit the United Nations with making Bosnia a safer place.

“God knows what will happen when they leave,” said Emira Hadzic, 41, a Muslim from Mostar, a city taut with ethnic tensions after the end of the conflict. “For years after the war they provided some kind of security.”

The European Union force will also train and monitor local police forces in Bosnia, which is still struggling to rebuild after years of divisive ethnic conflict.

Unarmed mandate

U.N. peacekeepers arrived in February 1992 to try and keep the lid on ethnic tensions, but were ill-prepared for what was to erupt just two months later — the start of Europe’s worst post-World War II conflict.

They were outmanned and outgunned, with orders but not the means to keep a nonexistent peace. The initial contingent of 100 U.N. military observers was powerless in what soon turned into a war pitting Serbs opposed to Bosnia’s independence from Yugoslavia against Muslims and Croats backing it.

The U.N. peacekeeping force came to number 21,000, backed by armor and NATO warplanes. But more personnel and equipment flowing into Bosnia didn’t help. Timid U.N. functionaries overseeing the peacekeepers caved instead of trying to secure respect for the international contingent through force.

Soon, U.N. commanders were begging local warlords to let their shipments of food pass through. The U.N. airlift operation carrying supplies for Serb-besieged Sarajevo was so unreliable that it was branded “Maybe Airlines.”

Haunting incidents

As U.N. peacekeepers watched, genocide swept away entire groups of Bosnians between 1992 and the end of 1995. The worst example was Srebrenica, a civilian enclave in the east of the country that the United Nations declared safe.

Overrun by Bosnian Serb soldiers, Srebrenica was left to its fate by Dutch peacekeepers. Accepting Serb promises that no harm would be done, they closed the gates of their compound, allowing the Serbs to expel or kill the entire Muslim population.

The Netherlands government resigned in April after an independent Dutch report blamed the Dutch peacekeepers for Srebrenica.

On a 1999 visit, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan apologized for the tragedy and said it “will haunt our history forever.” He called the United Nations’ mission in Bosnia “one of the most difficult and painful in our history.”