Helmut Harff (5 June 1939 – 8 September 2018) was a German Army brigadier general who served as commander of German military contingents taking part in peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Kosovo, and was chief of staff of the French-led Multi-National Division Southeast in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He also received international attention after the media recorded a confrontation he had with a Serbian army colonel in Kosovo, successfully threatening him into removing his troops from a border post they were occupying.

[3] Although the UN mission was a failure at bringing about peace in Somalia, it represented a new achievement for the Bundeswehr at the time, being able to assist in an operation abroad without existing regulations.

For the Somalia operation he was awarded the United Nations Medal, the Badge of Honour of the Bundeswehr in Gold, and the 1st class cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

[4] In 1997 he was deployed as the chief of staff of the French-led Multi-National Division Southeast in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, as part of the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR).

At a border crossing between Kosovo and Albania, near Morina on the Albanian side, a group of Serbian soldiers still remained there despite Serbia's agreement to withdraw.

Harff arrived at the border post on 13 June[6] and met with the commanding Serbian colonel and his officers.

In 2006, he and several other officers criticized Karlheinz Viereck, the head of the European Union Force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for leaving his post to go on vacation to Sweden, which is where he was when political violence broke out in the DRC.