The multi-ethnic ideal propagated by NATO and the UN for the Balkans was sorely tested in Kosovo. Like most sizable military interventions in the 1990s, both the military and civilian components fell victim to the law of unintended consequences. Officially replacing Serb with international rule, but failing to effectively establish interim authority in the short term allowed the former victims to become perpetrators, and the dominant elite to become victims.

The prime concern was to prevent Kosovo from being emptied of all minorities in the summer of 1999. This scenario, which became more likely with every act of ethnic violence, would represent an outright political failure of KFOR and UNMIK. Protecting the Serbs and other minorities therefore became the military force's primary mission. However, the accountability of Serbs for war crimes was regarded as one of the key contributing factors to long-term interethnic reconciliation in Kosovo. Apprehending suspected war criminals was a civilian responsibility, but as with almost every element of civil implementation, the military would play a substantial role. The Dutch-led Task Force Orahovac became more actively involved in the matter of crimes committed during the war than any other contingent by actively contributing to the investigation of war crimes and the arrest of lower-level war crimes suspects. Different interpretations of the poorly defined mandate for the arrests would result in controversy over this particular military role.

Russians

As previously stated, Orahovac resembled a microcosm of Kosovo's problems and KFOR's challenges in 1999, with its proportional Serb minority, the rapid emergence of an ethnically segregated enclave and the dilemma of the Serbs as both victims and perpetrators. However, there was one unique factor, the impending takeover of the area by Russian KFOR troops, which requires elaboration before addressing the protection of the Serbs and the military role in the pursuit of war criminals. The Russian deployment was, after all, the dominant theme throughout the presence of the first Dutch artillery battalion and permeated every other element of its mission. The battalion's attention should have been fully directed at consolidating KFOR and UNMIK control over local society, but the crisis and the resulting media attention continued to drain energy from the commander and his men.