The Electronic Telegraph Tuesday 13 June 1995 Motoring
Daily Telegraph reporter
Tim Butcher on the armoured
Land Rover's life-saving role
YOU SEE armoured Land Rovers all over Bosnia. They come wheezing over snowy mountain passes, wading round blown-up bridges and sprinting along Snipers' Alley in Sarajevo. Journalists, United Nations soldiers and aid workers use them. They have become the automotive lingua franca of the Balkan war zone.
Time was when a card stuck in a windscreen bearing the words Press or TV would protect the occupants of the vehicle from direct attack. That time passed a long time ago in former Yugoslavia as combatants decided to shoot first and dodge reporters' questions later.
The scene outside the television centre in Sarajevo is a Land Rover advertising executive's idea of heaven - up to a dozen examples of Solihull-made Rovers bearing the motifs of the world's press, among them BBC, ITN, CNN, ABC and occasionally The Daily Telegraph.
Some of the older versions were bought second-hand from the British Army after service in Northern Ireland. Covered in sheet steel with port-holes for windows, they have the air of malevolent insects. More modern versions are covered with lighter, Kevlar-based armour plating and come with stereo, air-conditioning and other refinements.
At £75,000 for a Kevlar version, they are not cheap, but they are certainly desirable, and not just for journalists. A BBC crew left one in the Bosnian town of Jablanica for a few days and returned to find it had been requisitioned by the local Bosnian army commander.
The armour plate will stop small arms rounds and the belly plates are strong enough to protect the occupants if they hit anti-personnel mines. An ITN Land Rover that took the wrong turn on the road into Sarajevo was hit by more than 20 rounds before Bosnian Serb soldiers stopped firing.
The armour is, however, only rarely put to the ultimate test. The Land Rover's main value is the confidence it gives its driver to go to places that might be deemed too risky in a "soft-skinned" vehicle.
The presence of British troops in Bosnia means that Land Rover users do not have to go far for spare parts and mechanical help, most of it lubricated by donations of consumables such as beer. When The Daily Telegraph's Land Rover had a spectacular tumble on an icy Bosnian road, British troops gathered to give advice. After checking that the chassis was not bent and that the freezing temperature meant the vehicle did not need its smashed fan, the diesel engine started first time.
Journalists began using Land Rovers only after other vehicles were tested. Four-wheeled drive Lada Nivas scored high on repairablity - local mechanics were used to the Soviet-bloc engineering - but low on protection as there was no easy way of applying armour plate. A strange collection of ex-military limousines - Audis, Mercedes and the like - were pressed into Bosnian service after years protecting VIPs. With their 30mm plate-glass windows and anti-mine belly plates, they were certainly strong enough. But they were designed for autoroutes and boulevards and they would leave important bits like exhausts and axles on rutted mountain roads.
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