12 Facts About UNPROFOR

UNPROFOR was created by UN Security Council Resolution 743 on 21 February 1992 during the Croatian War of Independence.

The initial mandate of UNPROFOR was to ensure stable conditions for peace talks, and security in three demilitarized "safe-haven" enclaves designated as United Nations Protected Areas .

On 31 March 1995, UNPROFOR was restructured into three coordinated peace operations.

On 20 December 1995, the forces of UNPROFOR were reflagged under the NATO-led Implementation Force, whose task was to implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina .

Additionally, the situation for which UNPROFOR had been designed and anticipated for had significantly changed.

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Resolution 836 authorized UNPROFOR "acting in self-defense, to take the necessary measures, including the use of force, in reply to bombardments against the safe areas by any of the parties or to armed incursion into them or in the event of any deliberate obstruction in or around those areas to the freedom of movement of UNPROFOR, or of protected humanitarian convoys".

On 24 September, the Security Council was informed by the Croatian Government that if the mandate of UNPROFOR was not amended to promote energetic implementation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, Croatia would be forced to request UNPROFOR to leave the country no later than 30 November 1993.

UNPROFOR demanded apologies for the death of the four Serbian soldiers killed by the French at Vrbanja bridge, threatening to "be unable to guarantee the safety" of the UN forces in Gorazde.

On 12 July 1995 UNPROFOR failed to deter the Bosnian Serb attack on Srebrenica because they were not able to sufficiently reinforce the Dutch battalion in place, and the city was overrun.

At this point, UNPROFOR had become "militarily engaged" with NATO against the Bosnian Serb Army.

NATO and UNPROFOR were increasingly difficult to separate by autumn 1995, both in terms of policy and actions taken on the ground.

Some of UNPROFOR troops were folded into the new IFOR forces, but for all intents and purposes, UNPROFOR no longer operated in Bosnia and Herzegovina.