This article focuses on the community interpreting undertaken by UNMO interpreters who worked for the author in the nine months that he was the UN senior military observer in sector Sarajevo and the three months that he functioned as the UNMO station commander in Ohrid, Macedonia. It focuses on community interpreting in a war zone (Sarajevo), community interpreting in a demilitarized zone (Zepa) and community interpreting in a ‘preventive peacekeeping’ situation (Ohrid, Macedonia). Next, it outlines the special conditions of work for UNMO interpreters, as well as interpreter techniques and the value of the United Nations presence.