Ulf Henricsson

Senior Colonel Ulf Hugo Henricsson (born 1 February 1942) is a former Swedish officer. He is best known for his achievements in the Bosnian War as commander of the peacekeeping operations from September 1993 to April 1994.[3] There he commanded the Nordic battalion (Nordbat 2) which was a part of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR).

Ulf Henricsson
Birth nameUlf Hugo Henricsson
Nickname(s)"Sheriff of Vareš"[1][2]
Born (1942-02-01) 1 February 1942
Stockholm, Sweden
Service/branchSwedish Army
Years of service1969–2002
RankSenior Colonel
UnitGöta Life Guards (1969–79)
Svea Life Guards (1983–84)
Commands heldArmoured Troops Combat School
Södermanland Brigade
Eastern Army Division
Other workHead of SLMM

Early life

Henricsson was born on 1 February 1942 in Engelbrekt Parish, Stockholm, Sweden.[4] Henricson grew up on the farm Svarttorp south of Järna.[5]

Military career

Early career

Henricsson graduated from the Military Academy Karlberg in 1969 and was commissioned as an officer at the Göta Life Guards with the rank of second lieutenant.[6] Henricsson attended the Swedish Armed Forces Staff College from 1979 to 1981 and served as a general staff officer and department chief in the Army Staff from 1981 to 1983. He was then company commander in the Svea Life Guards from 1983 to 1984 and commander of the Ground Operations Department in the staff of the Eastern Military Area from 1984 to 1986. Henricsson served as battalion commander in the Skaraborg Regiment (P 4) from 1986 to 1987 and from 1987 to 1990 he was system leader for Combat Vehicle 90 and the Swedish tank programme in the Army Staff. Henricsson was commanding officer of the Swedish Armoured Troops Combat School (Pansartruppernas stridsskola, PS) from 1990 to 1991 before being appointed brigade commander of the Södermanland Brigade in 1991.[7]

Bosnian War

During September 1993 to April 1994 he served as commanding officer of the Nordic battalion (Nordbat 2), part of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), which consisted of the first Swedish battalion (BA01) to be deployed in Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War. The battalion consisted of 840 soldiers[8] in three mechanized infantry companies and one staff and tross company. Together with a Danish tank company (DANSQN) and a Norwegian field hospital (NORMEDCOY), it formed the battalion Nordbat 2. The battalion headquarters was in Živinice outside Tuzla. Its area of responsibility started north in the Posavina corridor 10 kilometres south of Brčko, to some 10 kilometres south of Vareš in central Bosnia.[9]

Henricsson and his soldiers became known for redrawing the rules of international peacekeeping by aggressively protecting civilians, tactics not popular among U.N. officials.[2] His robust approach impressed his UNPROFOR commander Michael Rose, the press corps, his Danish colleagues in Nordbat 2 and the local parties.[10] At home, his robust approach did not go down well with the traditionalists, who accused the Swedish contingent of being trigger-happy and too aggressive.[10] The result on the ground proved the critics wrong, however, and Henricsson's approach was eventually codified in the Swedish peace support operations doctrine published in 1997.[10]

In Vareš, Henricsson and his soldiers saved the lives of 200 men and boys detained in a school.[11] On 2 April 1996, Henricsson testified against Ivica Rajić in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for his involvement in the Stupni Do massacre.[9]

Later career

Back in Sweden, Henricsson continued commanding the Södermanland Brigade until 1994 and was then commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division from 1994 to 1999.[7] He was head of the OSSE Department for Regional Stabilisation in Sarajevo from 1999 to 2001.[12] Since 2002, brigadier Henricsson has been head of the Department of Leadership and Management at the Swedish Defence University.[3] On 22 February 2006, Henricsson was appointed as the new head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission effective from 1 April 2006, replacing Brigadier Hagrup Haukland.[13] He left the position on 1 September 2006.

Personal life

Henricsson is married to Lena and has four sons.[5]

Henricsson has appeared in TV3's television programme Grannfejden as mediator[14] as well as in TV8's Nyhetsfajten.[15]

Henricsson became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences in 1996[16] and served four years as chairman of the Land Warfare Studies Department.[17]

He is also a board member of Södertälje Hospital in Södertälje.[18]

Awards and decorations

Bibliography
  • Henricsson, Ulf (2013). När Balkan brann!: överste 1. Ulf Henricsson om sitt krig i Bosnien och hur han blev "sheriffen i Vareš" [When Balkans burned!: Brig. Ulf Henricsson about his war in Bosnia and how he became the "Sheriff of Vareš"] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Svenskt militärhistoriskt bibliotek. ISBN 9789186837402.
  • Henricsson, Ulf; Vlk, Magnus; Ålrud, Magnus (1997). Ledarskap i krigsliknande situationer: redigerade bilder ur verkligheten : BA 01 1993-94 [Leadership in war-like situations: edited images of reality : BA 01 1993-94]. LI. Serie I, 1401-5676 ; 4 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Ledarskapsinstitutionen, Försvarshögsk.

Footnotes
  1. In the book Utlandsstyrkan i fredens tjänst (2006), the medal is wrongly named as Försvarsmaktens medalj för internationella insatser i guld i blått band med svärd i guld ("Swedish Armed Forces International Service Medal")[19] (not including the word belöning, "reward") which is a different medal which does include swords. On Ulf Henricsson's own website, it is named as Överbefälhavarens förtjänstmedalj i guld med svärd för internationella insatser (literally "Supreme Commander's Medal of Merit in gold with swords for international service"),[18] (not including the words Försvarsmakten, "Swedish Armed Forces") and belöningsmedalj ("medal of reward").

References
  1. Johnsson, Fredrik (18 April 2010). "Svenskarna i Bosnienkriget" [The Swedes in the Bosnian War]. P3 Dokumentär (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio P3. Archived from the original on 25 April 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
  2. "Assertive Swedes Play Tough Guy In Bosnia -- Most U.N. Troops Use Other Tactics". The Seattle Times. Vareš, Bosnia. AP. 6 November 1993. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  3. Askelin, Jan-Ivar (2002). "Jag hör till dem som vägrat lyda order" [I belong to those who refused to obey orders] (PDF). Framsyn (in Swedish). Swedish Defence Research Agency (5): 6–7, 9.
  4. Sveriges befolkning 1980 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Sveriges släktforskarförb. 2004. ISBN 91-87676-37-0. SELIBR 9632925.
  5. Samuelsson, Marie-Louise (30 May 1993). "Uppdrag Bosnien: Om det blir svenskarnas tur att hamna i elden är överste Henricsson redo". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). p. 20. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  6. Andersson, Björn (2016). Kungl Krigsvetenskapsakademien: Svenska krigsmanna sällskapet (till 1805), Kungl Krigsvetenskapsakademien : 20 år med akademien och dess ledamöter 1996-2016 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Kungl. Krigsvetenskapsakademien. p. 31. ISBN 978-91-980878-8-8. SELIBR 20033514.
  7. Engman, Guy, ed. (2004). Svensk försvarskalender 2004 [Swedish defence handbook 2004] (in Swedish). Eskilstuna: Streck & punkt. p. 536. SELIBR 4341861.
  8. Arnö, Sophie (1998-08-12). ""Våld var nödvändigt". Ulf Henricsson, överste. Många soldater ringer fortfarande för att de behöver prata om vad de upplevde i Bosnien" ["Violence was necessary." Ulf Henriksson, Colonel. Many soldiers still call for the need to talk about what they experienced in Bosnia.]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  9. "THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL CASE NO. IT-95-12-R61 FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER". International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 2 April 1996. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  10. Jakobsen, Peter Viggo (2006). Nordic Approaches to Peace Operations: A New Model in the Making. Routledge. p. 194. ISBN 978-0415544917.
  11. Demir, Shamiram (12 July 2005). "FN-soldater minns maktlöshet i Bosnien" [UN soldiers remember powerlessness in Bosnia] (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  12. Henricsson, Ulf (29 July 2008). "Srebrenicas tragik hade kunnat undvikas" [Srebrenica tragedy could have been prevented]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  13. "Brigadier Ulf Henricsson of Sweden, the new SLMM Chief". Asian Tribune. 2006-02-22. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  14. Karlsson, Anton; Majlard, Jan (5 December 2014). "Medlare: "Nu får ni bli vuxna"" [Mediator "Now you have to become adults"]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  15. Julander, Oscar (14 December 2008). "Bah och Henricsson segrade i Nyhetsfajten" [Bah and Henricsson won Nyhetsfajten]. Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  16. "Akademiens ledamöter" [Members of the Academy] (in Swedish). Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  17. Anderson, Björn (2010). "Kungliga Krigsvetenskapsakademiens årsberättelse för 2010" (PDF). Kungl. Krigsvetenskapsakademiens Handlingar och Tidskrift (in Swedish). Stockholm: Kungl. Krigsvetenskapsakademien: 27. SELIBR 3417415.
  18. "Jag ger råd och utför dåd" [I give advice and perform deeds]. wwww.svarttorp.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  19. Sjöstrand, Carl, ed. (2006). Utlandsstyrkan i fredens tjänst: försvarsmaktens internationella insatser [The International Force in the service of peace: The Swedish Armed Forces' international operations] (in Swedish). Malmö: Arena. p. 227. ISBN 91-7843-225-1.
  20. "14 får medalj av ÖB". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). 3 March 1998. p. 4 / E1. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
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