United Nations Protection Force

The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: Force de Protection des Nations Unies) was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars. The force was formed in February 1992 and its mandate ended in March 1995, with the peacekeeping mission restructuring into three other forces (the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the Republic of Macedonia, and the United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia (UNCRO) in Croatia, with restructured UNPROFOR operations ongoing in Bosnia and Herzegovina until their replacement by NATO and EU missions in December 1995).

UNPROFOR was composed of nearly 25,000 personnel. It consisted of troops from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. According to the UN, there were 167 fatalities amongst UNPROFOR personnel during the course of the force's mandate. Of those who died, three were military observers, 159 were other military personnel, one was a member of the civilian police, two were international civilian staff and two were local staff.

The commanders of UNPROFOR were:

Prominent officers :

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 (UNPAs). These were located in various regions before the Republic of Croatia received full membership status in the United Nations (UN), but were controlled by the self-styled Republic of Serbian Krajina.

In 1992, the mandate was extended to so-called "pink zones" controlling access to the UNPAs (UNSC Resolution 762), some border control and monitoring of civilian access to the Pink Zones (UNSC Resolution 769), and control of the demilitarisation of the Prevlaka peninsula near Dubrovnik (UNSC Resolution 779).

In contrast to that of Croatia, the UNPROFOR mandate for Bosnia and Herzegovina was not to monitor a preexisting cease-fire. The mandate can essentially be divided into four phases:

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 (IFOR), whose task was to implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFAP – otherwise known as the Dayton Accords or Dayton Agreement).