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It is not by suppressing his views,
but by forming his views on an independent basis
and by consistently maintaining them
that a Secretary-General can gain and maintain
the confidence on which he is dependent.
Dag HammarskjoldMy country has steadfastly pursued
over the years a policy of nonalignment,
and friendship for all other nations whatever their ideologies.
In my new role, I shall continue
to maintain this attitude of objectivity,
and to pursue the ideal of universal friendship.
U Thant, November 3, 1961
In addition to the five permanent members with veto power on
the Security Council
Britain, China, France, Soviet Union, and
United States - the first elected members
of the Security Council
were Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Netherlands, and Poland.
Iranians complained that the Soviet troops had not withdrawn from
Iran
by March 2, 1946 as agreed in the 1942 Tripartite Treaty;
but after the Soviets
promised that they would evacuate by May
6, the Iranians withdrew their complaint.
Although the Ukrainian representative of the Soviet Union raised
the issue of violence
on the Greece-Albania border on August 24,
1946, when the United States
proposed a commission to investigate,
it was vetoed by the Soviet Union.
On December 2 Greece complained
to the Security Council that Communist
guerrillas in northern
Greece were being assisted by Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria.
The Soviet Union did not block the Commission that was sent at
the beginning of 1947,
though they disagreed with its reports
and vetoed resolutions.
So the United States took the case to
the General Assembly,
which on October 21, 1947
by majority vote
established the United Nations
Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB) to be composed from all eleven nations
of the Security
Council, though the USSR and Poland did not participate.
After
Yugoslavia became more independent and left the Cominform organization
in 1948,
the Greek Communists received little support; UNSCOB
was terminated in 1951.
After Japan surrendered, Indonesia declared its independence
on August 17, 1945;
but the Netherlands, its former colonial overlord,
tried to regain control,
and the issue was brought to the Security
Council, which on August 1, 1947
called upon both sides to cease
hostilities and accept arbitration.
A Consular Commission drawn
from Australia, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom,
and the United
States went to observe the cease-fire.
After fighting began again
in late 1948, the Security Council again requested a cease-fire
and on January 28, 1949 asked the Consular Commission
to provide
military observers (Milobs).
With no more than 63 persons at any
time they were able to mark the cease-fire lines,
supervise troop
withdrawals, stop infiltration between lines,
and investigate
violations and damages to rubber plantations.
By the end of 1949
the disputed territory had been
transferred to the sovereignty
of Indonesia.
By 1947 the failure of the Security Council to organize the
forces necessary
for the collective security framework, in which
disarmament could have been
established, allowed the Cold War arms
race to dominate the international scene.
Meanwhile the permanent
members of the Security Council were getting around
their partial
ban of the veto if they were a party to a dispute
simply by not
calling it a "dispute."
In April 1947 British diplomats brought the issue of the League
mandate
over Palestine to the United Nations, and the Assembly
appointed
a Special Committee,
which proposed partition in November;
but the plan was rejected by Palestinians and Arab States.
In
the last month of 1947 and the first month of 1948 the UN reported
2,778 casualties in Palestine (1,462 Arabs, 1,106 Jews, and 181
British).
After repeated calls for a cease-fire in April, on the
23rd the Security Council
established a Truce Commission for Palestine
from representatives of Belgium,
France, and the United States
to supervise the requested cease-fire.
On May 14, 1948 the General
Assembly terminated
the Palestine Commission and appointed a UN
Mediator.
The next day the United Kingdom relinquished its Mandate,
and on that same day the Jewish Agency proclaimed the state of
Israel.
As the British withdrew their forces, Arabs invaded.
On
May 22 the Security Council called for a cease-fire within 36
hours
and ordered the truce commission to report on compliance.
A week later the Security Council authorized military advisors
to supervise observance.
As the war continued, the number of military
advisors grew to 572 and became
known as the United Nations Truce
Supervision Organization (UNTSO).
A four-week truce expired on July 9, and Arab governments refused
to extend it.
As fighting erupted again, the Security Council
ordered a cease-fire
and threatened Chapter VII action; both sides
complied.
On September 17, 1948 the UN Mediator, Count Bernadotte and a senior French
observer were assassinated in Jerusalem by
the Jewish terrorist Stern organization,
and Ralph Bunche became
acting Mediator.
On November 16 the Security Council ordered an
armistice,
and all agreed except Egypt which accepted it in January.
Between February and July 1949 Israel made separate
bilateral
agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.
The area of
the partition that was to be Palestine
was divided between Israel
and Jordan,
which got the West Bank, while Egypt gained the Gaza
strip.
Israel was admitted into the United Nations on May 11,
1949.
The Mediator role was ended in August, but the UNTSO continued.
India and Pakistan gained their independence from Britain on
August 15, 1947,
but Kashmir was unsure which nation to join.
When Muslims from Pakistan invaded in October,
Kashmir's Maharaja
asked India for troops and agreed to join India.
On the first
day of 1948 India went to the Security Council
and accused Pakistan
of threatening international peace.
Pakistan argued that Kashmir's
accession to India was illegal
and requested a plebiscite under
United Nations supervision.
India agreed, but only if peace was
restored.
On January 20 the Security Council established the United
Nations Commission
on India and Pakistan (UNCIP), but they did
not arrive in Kashmir for six months.
In August UNCIP proposed
a cease-fire and submitted new proposals in December.
On the first
day of 1949 both India and Pakistan agreed on a cease-fire,
and
it was formalized two weeks later.
The United Nations Military
Observers Group in India and Pakistan
(UNMOGIP) was implemented
in February.
On July 27, 1949 the Karachi Agreement established
the cease-fire line,
and any disputes were to be decided by the
Commission's Military Adviser.
The Commission was terminated in
1950, but UNMOGIP was still there in 1965
when hostilities broke
out again.
After Mao Zedong's Communists took over the Chinese mainland
and proclaimed
the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949,
Soviet delegates walked out
of most UN bodies as a protest against
China still being represented
by the Nationalist regime that held
only Taiwan.
Norwegian Secretary-General Trygve Lie tried to get
the Beijing regime seated,
but the United States refused to recognize
them as the government of China.
During the spring of 1950 Secretary-General
Lie traveled to the capitals
of the
big four powers on a peace
mission to improve the effectiveness of the United Nations.
He
proposed the following ten points:
veto limitation on the Security
Council pacific settlement procedures,
international control of
atomic energy, arms limitation, a UN armed force,
universal membership
in the UN, private and intergovernmental technical
and economic
development, more use of the UN's specialized agencies,
human
rights development, peaceful decolonization, and accelerated development
of enforceable world law.
Unfortunately these ideals soon gave
way to the crisis in Korea.
The armies of the United States and Soviet Union had occupied
Korea in 1945
to accept the surrender of Japanese troops on each
side of the 38th parallel.
The United Nations Temporary Commission
on Korea (UNTCOK)
was established in November 1947.
The next year
UNTCOK failed to persuade the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops
from northern Korea, and North Koreans refused to cooperate with
UNTCOK.
They did not participate in the elections
that took
place in South Korea on May 10, 1948.
The next year the UN General
Assembly established UNCOK to continue the work
of UNTCOK, and
their peace-observation function reported that on June 25, 1950
North Koreans using Russian T-34 tanks invaded South Korea.
The
United States also reported the attack by North Korea.
Secretary-General
Lie considered this attack a violation of the UN Charter
and asked
the Security Council to take steps to reestablish peace.
Since
Soviet delegates were boycotting the Council because of China,
it was able to vote nine to zero with Yugoslavia abstaining to
direct North Korea
to withdraw its troops north of the 38th parallel,
requesting states
to assist the UN and refrain from helping North
Korea.
North Korea ignored the resolution,
and President Truman
sent US troops to South Korea.
On July 7 the Security Council established a Unified Command
under the United States,
and Truman appointed General Douglas
MacArthur as UN Commander.
Fourteen other nations also sent troops
to support South Korea.
The UN forces were on the defensive in
South Korea until General MacArthur
led a landing at Inchon on September
15, 1950.
UN forces retook Seoul, and by September 30 they crossed
north of the 38th parallel.
On that day Secretary-General Lie
suggested settlement terms;
but these were ignored by MacArthur,
and on October 7 the United States
got the General Assembly to
adopt a resolution
supporting UN forces moving north of the 38th
parallel.
The next day MacArthur sent North Korea an ultimatum
to cooperate in establishing a unified government.
As South Korea's
forces neared the Yalu River and the borders with
China and the
Soviet Union, Chinese "volunteer" forces aiding
North
Koreans began pushing them back south.
On October 24 MacArthur
started using non-Korean troops,
but they were driven back south
of the 38th parallel.
In November 1950 the western powers also took advantage of
Russia's absence
from the Security Council to pass the "Uniting
for Peace" resolution, which enables
the General Assembly
to recommend collective measures for maintaining peace
if the
Security Council does not fulfill its peacekeeping responsibility
because of lack of unanimity among its permanent members.
The
USSR returned to the Security Council
so that it could make effective
use of its veto.
Lie contacted the Chinese to negotiate a cease-fire,
but the Chinese delegation left New York in December.
By the end
of 1950 the North Korean and Chinese forces
had regained Pyongyang
and Seoul.
UN forces fought back, and by March 14, 1951
they had
retaken Seoul once again.
In the spring see-saw battles were fought
along the 38th parallel
as Secretary-General Lie and the Security
Council called for a cease-fire.
On June 23, 1951 the Soviet Union's UN ambassador Jacob Malik
suggested discussions for an armistice, and two days later
the People's Daily of Beijing endorsed the idea.
On June 27
Soviet foreign minister Gromyko declared that
the ceasefire should
be separate from political problems.
Armistice talks began on
July 10.
Amid continued fighting in a military stale-mate, negotiations
dragged on
for two years as Americans were accused of war crimes,
and controversy whether prisoners of war
were to be repatriated
voluntarily or not delayed agreement.
Guerrilla warfare was countered
with aerial bombing of North Korea.
In 1953 US President Eisenhower's
threat to use tactical nuclear weapons
eventually stimulated agreement,
and the POW issue was settled on June 8.
Ten days later South
Korean president Syngman Rhee
allowed 27,000 North Korean prisoners
to escape.
North Koreans complained, and the United States agreed
to enforce the armistice that was signed on July 27, 1953.
In
the three-year Korean War about three million Koreans died;
about
one million Chinese were killed; and 54,246 Americans lost their
lives.
This bloodiest of the hot wars during the Cold War alienated
both superpowers
from Secretary-General Trygve Lie, and he was
replaced
by Swedish Dag Hammarskjold on April 10, 1953.
As of
2003 the United States still had about 37,000 troops at the 38th
parallel
enforcing the armistice, but in the next two years many
forces were removed
to support the military occupation of Iraq.
On July 19, 1956 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced
that
the United States would not finance Egypt's Aswan Dam, and
a week later
President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez
Canal Company.
France and the United Kingdom took their case
to
the Security Council on September 23,
and the next day Egypt accused
Britain and France of endangering the peace.
Most of the canal's
shareholders were British and French,
and English prime minister
Anthony Eden ordered an Anglo-French invasion of Egypt
while the
foreign ministers of the three nations were negotiating a six-point
agreement
mediated by Secretary-General Hammarskjold.
President
Dwight Eisenhower rejected the use of force, but on October 29
Israel began the attack by parachuting a battalion into Sinai.
The next day the United States requested a Security Council meeting.
Then according to their plan, the British and French called upon
both Egypt and Israel
to retreat ten miles from the canal or they
would send troops,
although Israel's forces were still more than
ten miles from the canal.
Egypt rejected the ultimatum, claiming
it was defending its sovereign territory.
Two days later Anglo-French
air forces attacked Egyptian air bases.
On November 2, 1956 the UN General Assembly passed the resolution
proposed by Dulles ordering the parties to withdraw to the 1949
armistice boundaries
and cease fire so that the canal could reopen.
On the 5th the UN General Assembly established
the United Nations
Emergency Force (UNEF).
By November 7 British forces had landed
at Port Said,
and French troops had occupied Port Fouad;
but the
British government agreed to the cease-fire that started that
day.
On November 24 the General Assembly called for the withdrawal
of all
British and
French forces, and their governments agreed
to remove them by December 22.
The United States pressured compliance
from Israel, which delayed withdrawing
from the Gaza strip and
Sharm el Shaikh at the strategic Strait of Tiran.
Israel would
not allow UN troops on their territory,
and thus they were all
deployed on the Egyptian side of the border.
UNEF was drawn from
ten countries and ranged from three to six thousand
during its
mission for ten and a half years.
During the Suez crisis police fired on a crowd of peaceful
demonstrators
at a Budapest radio station on October 23, 1956.
Soviet tanks and troops soon entered Budapest,
but ferocious Hungarian
resistance caused them to withdraw on October 29.
However, a massive
Soviet invasion began on November 4,
and within four days the
uprising had been brutally suppressed.
The UN Security Council
met on the 4th, but the Soviet delegate vetoed
an American resolution
condemning the intervention.
The General Assembly also condemned
the invasion, but the Secretary-General
could do little in this
sphere of influence dominated by a superpower.
In February 1958 Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic
(UAR).
In May the murder of a dissident Christian newspaper editor
provoked a civil war
in Lebanon between those supporting pro-western
President Camille Chamoun
and the mostly Muslims who opposed him.
Armed resistance to the government stimulated Chamoun
to ask for
military assistance from the United States on May 13.
President
Eisenhower agreed but said he would not support
an unconstitutional
second term for Chamoun.
On May 22 Lebanon's UN delegate asked
the Security Council
to look into infiltration from Syria.
After
a pause to see if the Arab League could solve the problem,
on
June 10 the Security Council created the
United Nations Observation
Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL).
The Soviet Union was opposed and abstained.
After the pro-western King Faisal of Iraq was overthrown by
a military coup
on July 14, 1958, Chamoun asked for American military
support;
at the same time Jordan's King Hussein likewise asked
for British help.
US Marines landed in Beirut the next day.
Two
days later British troops flew into Jordan, and the US proposed
transforming
UNOGIL into an armed peacekeeping force; but the
Soviet Union vetoed it.
In August the United States and United
Kingdom both recognized
the new government of Iraq and sent identical
letters to the
UN General Assembly offering to withdraw their
troops.
By December 1958 UNOGIL had withdrawn from Lebanon.
In May 1960 Patrice Lumumba's party won a majority in both
houses of the Congo,
and the king of Belgium invited him to form
a government.
On June 30 the Republic of the Congo became independent,
but a few days later an army mutiny occurred.
On July 10 Belgian
troops were deployed, and
Lumumba appealed to Under Secretary-General
Ralph Bunche.
The next day pro-western Moishe Tshombé declared
the secession of the rich mineral province of Katanga.
Congo government
ministers asked the US ambassador
to provide American troops to
restore order.
By the 14th the Security Council had authorized
Secretary-General Hammarskjold
to provide military assistance
as needed and
called upon Belgium to withdraw its troops,
but
by July 19 ten thousand Belgian troops had returned to the Congo,
ostensibly to protect Belgian lives and property.
While Lumumba
was traveling in November,
he was arrested and apparently killed
while in custody.
The Soviets then called for the dismissal of
Hammarskjold
and a withdrawal of UN forces, but they gained no
support.
Secretary-General Hammarskjold sought a tougher mandate
and
went to the Congo himself, but on September 17, 1961
he was killed
in a plane crash while going to meet with Tshombé.
On November
3 U Thant of Burma became acting Secretary-General,
reflecting
the sharp increase of new nations from Asia and Africa
that expanded
UN membership from 50 states to 103.
That month the United Nations
Operation in the Congo (ONUC)
was further expanded by the Security
Council to support
the Central Government of the Republic of the
Congo
while condemning the illegal secessionist activities of
the Katanga revolt.
A year later U Thant was nominated by the
Security Council and
elected by the General Assembly to a regular
five-year term.
U Thant developed a plan for drafting a federal
constitution for the Congo,
and US President John Kennedy and
Belgian foreign minister Paul-Henri Spaak
threatened Katanga with
severe economic sanctions
if progress was not made toward unification.
The next month in December 1962 U Thant asked for a boycott
of key minerals purchased from Katanga unless duties were paid
to the Adoula government at Leopoldville.
When fighting broke
out that Tshombé could not stop,
UN troops occupied Elisabethville
and Kaminaville on January 3, 1963
with little resistance and
few casualties.
The UN continued to have military success, and
withdrawal of its troops was debated.
The United States and other
western interests asked that the UN remain
while Congolese troops
were retrained; they were finally withdrawn
in June 1964 as the
Congo became an independent nation.
ONUC was the most complex
UN peacekeeping operation so far,
employing nearly 20,000 troops,
lasting four years, and costing about $400,000,000.
The Soviet
Union, as with UNEF, refused to pay its share.
The United Nations
was nearly bankrupted, and the United States threatened a resolution
to deny the Soviet Union voting rights; but they promised to pay
their dues.
Another decolonization effort in Indonesia was not as controversial.
In October 1961 the Netherlands asked the UN General Assembly
to administer
West New Guinea during its transition to independence,
but there was no acting Secretary-General at that time.
In December,
Indonesia's Sukarno began infiltrating forces into the region
and proclaimed that "West Irian" would join Indonesia
in 1962.
Pressure from the United States and a United Nations
buffer
enabled the Dutch to make a graceful withdrawal.
In September
1962 the UN General Assembly endorsed
the Dutch-Indonesian accord
of the previous month.
By November the Dutch forces had withdrawn,
and
on the last day of 1962 the Dutch flag was replaced by the
Indonesian flag.
The UN Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA)
transferred
administrative control to the Indonesian government
on May 1, 1963.
Almost all of the 1,608 troops used in the
UN Security
Force (UNSF) were from Pakistan.
However, the vote in 1969 that
brought West New Guinea
formally into Indonesia was dominated
by Indonesian authorities.
During the Cuban missile crisis Secretary-General U Thant sent
identical letters
to US President Kennedy and Soviet Chairman
Khrushchev on October 24, 1962.
Khrushchev accepted his proposal
the next day.
U Thant then asked him to keep Soviet ships away
from the blockade,
and again Khrushchev agreed, criticizing the
United States for its "piratical measures."
U Thant
mediated the understanding that the Soviets would withdraw their
missiles
from Cuba if the United States gave assurances
not to
invade nor support an invasion of the island.
After this dangerous
crisis, both superpower leaders
thanked the Secretary-General
for his mediation.
After Yemen's Imam Ahmed bin Yahya died on September 19, 1962,
a civil war broke out in Yemen; as the military tried to take
control with
Egyptian support for republicans, Saudi Arabia and
Jordan assisted the royalists.
In November, President Kennedy
proposed a phased withdrawal of the
Egyptian, Saudi, and Jordanian
forces, but neither Nasser nor the Saudis would agree.
Yemen's
royalist diplomats at the United Nations sent a letter to
Secretary-General
U Thant on November 27 asking for an investigation
to see if Cairo
had instigated the military coup.
In February 1963 U Thant sent
Ralph Bunche on a fact-finding mission.
On April 29 U Thant announced
that Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt had al
asked for UN intervention,
and on June 11 the Security Council established
the United Nations
Yemen Observation Mission (UNYOM).
However, the civil war continued
after UNYOM ended its mission in September 1964;
the royalists
were still powerful while about 40,000 Egyptian troops
were in
Yemen and were increasing.
Cyprus gained its independence from Britain in August 1960;
but on November 30, 1963 President Makarios, the Greek archbishop,
proposed constitutional amendments that would reduce the influence
of the minority Turks.
Three weeks later fighting broke out in
Nicosia,
and Turkey mobilized military forces to aid Turkish Cypriots.
Within three days the governments of Britain, Greece, and Turkey
had organized
peacekeeping forces under British command and began
to negotiate in January.
Cyprus appealed to the UN Security Council
in January
and was joined in this by Britain the next month.
On
March 4, 1964 the Security Council established the
United Nations
Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
However, on July 15 the
Greek military dictatorship sponsored a take-over
by the Cypriot
National Guard to replace President Makarios, and five days later
the Turkish military intervened also, citing the 1960 Treaty of
Guarantees.
The UN Security Council met and called for a cease-fire
to begin on July 22,
though the fighting around the Nicosia airport
did not stop until the 24th.
UNFICYP continues to monitor the
cease-fire,
though additional crises occurred in 1967 and 1974.
After thirty years of a Trujillo dynasty, Juan Bosch was elected
President
of the Dominican Republic in December 1962,
but he was
removed by a military coup the following September.
In April 1965
Bosch and others led an uprising
to overthrow the military junta,
causing a civil war.
On April 25 the United States began sending
in 22,500 military officers,
claiming they were to protect US
citizens and property,
but actually they were preventing the radical
Bosch from returning to power.
The Organization of American States
(OAS)
justified the intervention after it occurred.
The Soviet
Union complained at the UN Security Council,
which called for
a cease-fire on May 14.
However, the US made the UN mission difficult,
showing once again
that the UN could do little within the sphere
of a superpower.
In Kashmir fighting broke out again when armed civilians from
Pakistan
crossed the cease-fire line in August 1965.
The UN Security
Council passed five resolutions to try to stop the fighting,
and
U Thant made several appeals.
On September 17 he suggested invoking
Chapter VII of the UN Charter,
declaring a failure to comply with
the cease-fire order a breach of the peace.
Five days later a
cease-fire became mostly effective,
though sporadic battles continued
until January 1966.
UNMOGIP was increased from 45 to 102 officers,
and 90 more were sent in
by October 14 as the United Nations India-Pakistan
Observation Mission (UNIPOM).
Pakistan and India agreed to withdraw
their troops by February 25;
UNIPOM was disbanded in March, and
UNMOGIP was reduced
back to 44 observers along the cease-fire
line.
UNMOGIP had to stop a conflict again in 1971, and as of
2005
it is still monitoring the tense cease-fire line between
Pakistan and India.
In November 1966 troops from Israel raided Jordanian villages,
and in April 1967 they bombarded Syrians
in the demilitarized
zone south of the Sea of Galilee.
Further incidents were blamed
on Syria by Israel prime minister Levi Eshkol on May 11.
Two days
later the Soviet Union advised the Egyptian government to anticipate
an Israeli invasion of Syria, though later it was recognized that
this was a false alarm.
On May 16 Egypt's chief of staff Fawzi
asked
the UNEF commander to withdraw his troops.
Recognizing Egypt's
right to make this request, Secretary-General U Thant agreed,
and after being there more than ten years,
the UNEF troops began
leaving the Sinai on May 29.
While they were still withdrawing,
on June 5, 1967,
Israel launched a surprise attack on airfields
in several Arab countries,
destroying most of these air forces
while they were still on the ground.
Then within a week Israel's
army invaded its neighbors, capturing all the West Bank
by the
Jordan River and Jerusalem from Jordan, occupying the Golan Heights
in Syria,
and taking the Gaza Strip, the Sinai peninsula, and
Sharm el-Sheikh from Egypt.
UN Security Council demands for a
cease-fire had been ignored,
and the United States was not willing
to cooperate in a settlement.
Fifteen United Nations officers
were killed
before they were able to evacuate Egypt by June 17.
The UN General Assembly in July declared Israel's unification
of Jerusalem illegal.
On November 22 the UN Security Council passed
Resolution 242
calling for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed
forces from territories
occupied in the recent conflict"
and for
Termination of all claims or states of belligerency
and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty,
territorial integrity and political independence
of every State in the area and their right to live in peace
within secure and recognized boundaries
free from threats or acts of force.1
The landmark resolution also affirmed the necessity of guaranteeing
the freedom
of navigation in international waters, "achieving
a just settlement of the refugee problem,"
and gaining territorial
inviolability by establishing demilitarized zones.
On October 6, 1973 on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur the
Egyptian army
attacked Israeli forces on the east bank of the
Suez Canal
while Syrian forces attacked Israeli positions on the
Golan Heights.
The Egyptian army broke through the Bar Lev line
the next day,
and neither side was willing to consider a cease-fire.
The United States requested a UN Security Council meeting on the
8th.
Jordan entered the war; but Israel, aided by US supplies
of ammunition,
had surrounded the Egyptian army by October 15,
and in the north their army was approaching Damascus.
On October
20 Saudi king Faisal announced the first
oil embargo against the
United States and the Netherlands.
US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger flew to Moscow to negotiate, and the
two superpowers
took their resolution to the UN Security Council on October 21.
The next day the Council adopted Resolution 338 calling for a
cease-fire
and immediate termination of all military activity.
Fighting continued, and two days later Soviet leader Brezhnev
sent US President Nixon a letter threatening unilateral action
if the United States did not agree to a joint US-Soviet force
to implement the cease-fire.
Washington leaders put American forces
on a higher stage of alert and warned
Egypt's
Sadat they would
pull out of the peace talks with Israel if Soviet forces intervened.
Sadat then changed his request from US-Soviet forces to a UN peacekeeping
force.
On October 25 the Security Council Resolution 340 demanded
an immediate cease-fire
and that the parties return to the positions
held as of October 22.
Kissinger mediated an agreement between
the military leaders
of Israel and Egypt that was signed on November
11,
and UNEF II began its peacekeeping operations four days later.
Syria and Israel signed an agreement on May 31, 1974 that created
three zones
monitored by the United Nations Disengagement Observer
Force (UNDOF).
US President Jimmy Carter mediated a peace treaty
between Israel and Egypt
that resulted in Israeli forces withdrawing
from the Sinai on May 23, 1979,
and UNEF II's mandate ended two
months later.
However, UNDOF was still supervising the Golan Heights
as of 2024.
The Cairo Agreement signed by Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO)
chairman Yasser Arafat and Lebanon's chief of staff on November
3, 1969
was supposed to regulate the armed Palestinians in Lebanon,
but the PLO conducted raids across the Israeli border.
On June
1, 1976 Syria broke a tacit agreement with Israel when they invaded
Lebanon
with troops to intervene in the civil war on the side
of the Christians.
On March 11, 1978 PLO forces seized a bus near
Haifa
and in a battle with Israeli security forces killed 37 Israelis.
Three days later Prime Minister Menachem Begin retaliated by ordering
the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to invade southern Lebanon.
US
ambassador Andrew Young sponsored a UN Security Council resolution
calling for a cease-fire, withdrawal of Israeli forces,
and a
UN peacekeeping force to supervise this.
Resolution 425 was adopted
on March 19, establishing the United Nations Interim Force
in
Lebanon (UNIFIL) with 4,000 troops that were increased to 6,000
in May.
On April 13, 1982 Israel's representative at the United Nations
complained
to the
Security Council that two PLO terrorists had
tried
to bring large quantities of explosives into Israel.
Eight
days later Israeli aircraft began attacking PLO targets in Lebanon.
On the same day Secretary-General Pérez de Cuellar
appealed
for a cessation of hostilities.
On May 9 Israel's air force again
attacked the PLO in Lebanon.
On June 6 IDF Chief of Staff Eitan
gave UNIFIL General Callaghan
thirty minutes warning that Israel
was going to invade Lebanon.
UNIFIL troops were ordered to stop
the invading army
but were overrun within 24 hours.
The next evening
Arafat informed the Secretary-General that the
Lebanese-Palestinian
command would comply with the Security Council resolution.
UNIFIL
attempted to fulfill its mission despite the Israeli occupation.
The IDF withdrew from Beirut in September 1983 and
began to withdraw
from Lebanon in February 1985.
UNIFIL is still in operation in 2024.
After its third war with Britain in 1919 Afghanistan became
an independent kingdom,
which was replaced by a republic in 1973.
The Marxist People's Democratic Party (PDPA)
seized power in Afghanistan
five years later.
Reforms of old religious and social institutions
were resisted in the countryside.
After Prime Minister Hafizullah
Amin had the Afghanistan President murdered,
the Soviet army invaded
on December 27, 1979
and installed Babrak Karmal as prime minister.
The UN Security Council met in January 1980 but could not pass
a resolution.
The General Assembly recognized the Karmal government
in Kabul
but condemned the invasion by a vote of 104 to 18.
On
May 14 the Kabul regime proposed the four points that
eventually
became the basis
of the Geneva accords, namely, withdrawal of
foreign troops,
noninterference in domestic politics, international
guarantees,
and the return of refugees to Afghanistan.
UN Secretary-General
Kurt Waldheim sent Pérez de Cuellar to Afghanistan in 1981,
and he got the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to accept
the four-point plan.
However, Islamic mujahideen continued to fight the Soviet
army from the countryside.
Resistance bases in Pakistan directed
the guerrilla campaign
which was supported by American weapons,
especially after
the Soviets started using special forces in the
spring of 1985.
Finally, three years after Mikhail Gorbachev became
the leader of the Soviet Union,
the Geneva Accords were signed
on April 14, 1988 and were implemented
a month later by the United
Nations Good Offices Mission
to Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNGOMAP).
The Soviet Union still had 103,000 troops at 18 garrisons
in 17
of Afghanistan's thirty provinces, and with the Afghan army of
50,000
they held all the major cities and towns in Afghanistan.
The fourth Geneva Accord resulted in the withdrawal of half the
Soviet troops
by August and the remainder by February 1989.
After
the attempted coup of 1991 in the Soviet Union, the Russians and
the Americans
agreed to end their military assistance to forces
in Afghanistan in 1992.
The Shah of Iran and Vice President Saddam Hussein of Iraq
signed the Algiers Treaty
in March 1975, agreeing to settle border
disputes
and allowing Iranians the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
As
a gesture of good faith to the Shah,
in 1978 Iraq deported the
exiled Ayatollah Khomeini to France.
After the Shah was overthrown
on February 11, 1979, Khomeini came to power
in Iran and still
resented Saddam Hussein for having deported him.
Iraq complained
that Iran had not withdrawn from
the disputed territory according
to the Algiers Treaty.
On September 10, 1980 Iraqi forces moved
into the disputed territories in Khuzistan
and a week later abrogated
the Algiers Treaty.
The day after notifying UN Secretary-General
Waldheim on September 21,
Iraq attacked Iran with its air force
and invaded with a large army.
On the 28th the UN Security Council
called for an end to the use of force;
but Iran rejected the resolution
because Iraq was not named as the aggressor.
The Soviet Union
stopped supplying arms to Baghdad, and by July 1982,
when the
Security Council passed two resolutions for a cease-fire,
the
larger Iranian army had pushed the battle-lines back into Iraqi
territory.
Concerned about the fundamentalist Shi'i Iranians, Gulf Arabs
began supporting Iraq.
France loaned Iraq money to buy billions
of dollars worth of arms from them;
Moscow resumed selling Iraq
weapons; and the United States allowed arms sales
and provided
military intelligence to Iraq even after Iraq used poison gas
in 1983 to overcome the Iranian superiority in numbers.
Washington
resumed diplomatic relations with Iraq in 1984.
The next year
the United States with Israeli help secretly sold weapons to Iran
in order to free American hostages and used the profits to provide
weapons
illegally to the Contras fighting the Sandinista government
of Nicaragua.
Both the Soviet Union and the United States tried
to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers.
The UN Security Council passed
Resolution 598 to try to stop the war on July 20, 1987.
A year
later the US cruiser Vincennes mistakenly shot down an
Iranian Airbus,
killing 290 civilians, but unpopular Iran could
not get the UN
to condemn the United States for this crime.
However,
Iran then accepted Resolution 598, and the
Security Council began implementing it with the United Nations
Iran-Iraq Military Observer
Group (UNIIMOG) in August 1988.
Even if the veto could be circumvented, the capabilities of
nuclear weapons
made action against an offending superpower too
risky, as the reluctance to intervene
in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia
in 1968 made clear.
Yet UN Secretary-General U Thant criticized
Russian intervention in Czechoslovakia
and American involvement
in Vietnam.
The deterrence
of nuclear weapons essentially replaced the
collective system
of deterrence if the nuclear powers were involved.
After the Korean
War fiasco, the Cold War prevented the use of the large powers'
forces
as United Nations police, which was the original intention,
because of mutual fear.
Instead the forces of small countries
were usually employed to stop small wars
and hostilities in such
places as Palestine, Pakistan-India, Indonesia, Congo,
Cyprus,
Israel and the Sinai, Syria, and Lebanon.
The UN supported decolonization,
and economic sanctions were imposed
on Rhodesia and South Africa
because of their flagrant violations of human rights.
The United Nations was powerless to mediate the conflicts in
Central America
until the Cold War declined in the late 1980s.
In August 1989 Nicaragua's Sandinista government agreed to conditions
for national elections in exchange for demobilization of the Contra
rebels.
The United Nations Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA)
was established on November 7.
Honduras and the other Central
American countries also wanted the
Contras demobilized, and on
April 19, 1990 they signed the Managua Agreements.
Contras surrendered
their weapons, uniforms, and ammunition to the ONUCA
and received
a demobilization certificate, designer jeans and a shirt, and
a food ration
from an organization co-sponsored by the United
Nations
and the Organization of American States (OAS).
By June
about 22,000 Contras had been demobilized,
and the UN's security zones
were abolished.
On July 26, 1990 the government of El Salvador and the resistance
group
Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN)
signed the
Agreement on Human Rights at San Jose, Costa Rica,
and on April 27, 1991
both sides signed an agreement for constitutional
reforms
to be presented in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.
The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL)
began
its work on July 26, and on January 16, 1992 the two sides
signed
a Peace Agreement at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City.
ONUSAL
supervised the elections of March and April 1994.
After 36 years of conflict a Guatemala peace agreement was
finally signed
in
December 1996, and the United Nations Verification
Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA)
verified the human rights agreement
and the cease-fire as the
Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca
(URNG) combatants were demobilized.
During World War I South Africa occupied the German colony
of South West Afric
and was given the League mandate over it;
but after World War II,
South Africa refused to accept UN authority
and tried to annex the territory.
Efforts began for independence,
but the United Nations did not revoke South Africa's
mandate until
1966, and five years later the International Court of Justice
ruled that South Africa's occupation was illegal.
After the Caetano
regime of Portugal fell in 1974, its former colonies
became independent
as Angola and Mozambique with Marxist governments.
A civil war
broke out in Angola the next year as Portugal withdrew;
the government
was supported militarily by Cuba and the Soviet Union,
while the
United States and South Africa aided rebel groups.
Meanwhile South Africa tried and failed to impose a non-Marxist
apartheid government in Namibia (South West Africa).
In 1976 the
five western nations of Canada, France, Britain, United States,
and West Germany formed the Contact Group to negotiate a settlement
that was proposed to the UN Security Council two years later.
Although the Council adopted the plan in a resolution that year,
more than a decade of negotiation passed before the
United Nations
Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG)
was implemented in April 1989.
Elections were held in independent Namibia on November 1, and
a week later
half of Cuba's 50,000 troops had left with those
remaining north of the 13th parallel.
The United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) also
began
with the signing of peace accords by South Africa, Angola,
and Cuba
on December 22, 1988, and its mission ended when the
last Cuban troops
were withdrawn two months early in May 1991.
UNAVEM II was deployed the next month and was to last
until November
1992, but it was extended.
In Mozambique, President Chissano,
who was elected in 1986,
and Afonso Dhlakama signed the General
Peace Agreement in Rome
on October 4, 1992, and the United Nations
Operation
in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) began monitoring it in 1993.
Elections were held in Mozambique the next year and were declared
free and fair
by ONUMOZ, which left Mozambique before the end
of 1994.
In Angola signing of the Lusaka Protocol on November
20, 1994 brought about
a cease-fire two days later, and UNAVEM
III was implemented in February 1995.
Its mandate ended in 1997,
and it was replaced by the
United Nations Observer Mission in
Angola (MONUA) until February 1999.
After Spain withdrew from the Western Sahara in 1976,
Morocco
was given two-thirds of the territory and Mauretania one-third.
That year a Popular Front (POLISARIO) declared independence
as
the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) with support from
Algeria, Libya, and Cuba and began fighting Mauretania, which
relinquished its territory
in the Algiers Agreement of August
1979; but Morocco then annexed that territory.
That year the Organization
of African Unity (OAU) called for a cease-fire
and a referendum
in the Western Sahara, establishing
a committee to work with the
United Nations.
When the OAU seated the SADR in 1985, Morocco
resigned in protest.
Libya supported Morocco, and in October 1985
SADR's foreign minister Hassan declared a unilateral cease-fire.
On August 11, 1988 UN Secretary-General Pérez de Cuellar
suggested
a joint UN-OAU plan for a ceasefire and a referendum
conducted by the UN;
representatives of Morocco and POLISARIO
agreed.
Diplomatic relations improved, and by February 1989 the
region founded the
Arab Mahgreb Union, modeled after Europe's
common market.
However, talks made little progress, though King
Hassan declared a universal truce
when the Secretary-General visited
in February 1990.
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum
in Western Sahara (MINURSO)
was established on April 29, 1991,
and a cease-fire went into effect on September 6.
However, the
referendum was delayed, and the MINURSO mandate
had to be extended
several times and is still in effect in 2024.
Chad and Libya submitted a border dispute to the International
Court of Justice
in September 1990, and in the spring of 1994
the United Nations
Aouzou Strip Observer Group (UNASOG) monitored
Libya's withdrawal.
Somalia became independent of Italy and Britain in 1960
but
began fighting with Ethiopia and was taken over by the Soviet-trained
army
led by General Siad Barre in October 1969.
Ethiopia's Emperor
Haile Selassie was deposed in 1975,
and the Soviet Union and Cuba
provided military aid to the new government.
In 1991 General Aidid
toppled President Siad Barre.
So much fighting occurred that in
1992 more than four million people
were threatened by starvation,
and about 300,000 died.
In February UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali
sponsored talks between
General Aidid and his rival Ali Mahdi,
and they agreed to a cease-fire on March 3.
The United Nations
Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM)
was deployed to monitor the cease-fire
in July.
In December 1992 the UN Security Council authorized States
to provide military forces
to secure the delivery of humanitarian
aid, and in 1993 the Council
expanded the force, implementing
UNOSOM II.
On March 24, 1994 Ali Mahdi and General Aidid signed
a declaration
of national reconciliation, agreeing to a cease-fire
and voluntary disarmament.
Although some district and regional
courts were established, after a while
it was determined that
the UN presence was no longer aiding national reconciliation.
UNOSOM was completely withdrawn by March 2, 1995.
After two years of fighting over the border, mediation by Algeria
and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) helped Ethiopia and
Eritrea
sign an agreement in June 2000 to cease hostilities.
In
July the UN Security Council set up the United Nations Mission
in
Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) to be a liaison and to verify
the ceasefire.
In September the Council authorized deployment
of military personnel to monitor
the peace and the redeployment
of troops and to assist in ensuring observance
of security and
a temporary security zone, and UNMEE was in operation
until the UN Security Council terminated the mandate in 2008.
The United Nations Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda (UNOMUR)
began in August 1993, and this led two months later to the creation
of the
United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR).
After
an airplane crash killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi
on April 6, 1994,
a civil war turned into mass murder as Hutus
killed between 500,000 and one million
Tutsis and "moderate"
Hutus in one of the worst cases of genocide in history.
Ten Belgian
UN peacekeepers were killed
trying to protect Prime Minister Agathe
Uwilingiyimana.
Amid the civil war Belgium decided to withdraw
its battalion from UNAMIR.
On April 30 the UN Security Council
demanded that the interim government of Rwanda
and the Rwandese
Patriotic Front (RPF) prevent attacks on civilians.
On May 13
UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali suggested
adding 5,500 troops
to UNAMIR, and four days later the Security Council
imposed an
arms embargo on Rwanda, expanding UNAMIR's mandate.
On July 14
the Security Council demanded an immediate cease-fire.
After the
RPF took Gisenyi on July 17, they declared a unilateral cease-fire
the next day.
On July 19 a broad-based government of national
unity formed
and began controlling all of Rwanda.
UNAMIR helped
refugees to return safely and ended its mission in March 1996.
A civil war began in Liberia in 1989 that led to the death
of more than 100,000 civilians,
making 700,000 refugees.
The Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
created the ECOWAS Monitoring
Group (ECOMOG) in 1990 with 4,000 troops
from Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
On November 19, 1992 the UN Security
Council imposed an arms embargo
on deliveries to Liberia except
for those going to the peacekeeping forces of ECOWAS.
The Cotonou
Peace Agreement was signed on July 25, 1993,
and in September
the UN Security Council established
the United Nations Observer
Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) to cooperate
with ECOWAS in implementing
the Cotonou agreement.
UNOMIL helped ECOWAS and the OAU monitor
elections in Liberia
and ended its mission in September 1997.
In the multi-party elections Charles Taylor was elected president
of Liberia,
but several factions were not absorbed into the security
forces.
In May 2003 President Taylor agreed to a joint assessment mission
by the United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS.
By then two
rebel movements controlled nearly two-thirds of Liberia,
and they
decided the hostilities were not conducive to holding elections
in October.
A cease-fire agreement was signed on June 17, and
in July ECOWAS leaders
decided to send a vanguard force to facilitate
Taylor's handing over of power,
and the United States positioned
a military force off the coast.
On August first the UN Security
Council authorized a multinational force in Liberia
that began
three days later with the ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL).
The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was established
by the Security Council in September 2003 to support the implementation
of the ceasefire agreement and the peace process, and its mission
continues.
After mutinies in the army of the Central African Republic,
in January 1997
four African Presidents mediated a truce as parties
signed the Bangui Agreements.
An inter-African force (MISAB) was
deployed to monitor implementation.
The United Nations Mission
in the Central African Republic (MINURCA)
helped maintain security
and monitor the disarmament, restructuring of
the national police,
and election plans, ending its mission in February 2000.
In May 1997 a military coup overthrew the democratically elected
government
in Sierra Leone; but the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS)
and its peacekeeping force restored the
elected government in March 1998.
The United Nations Observer
Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) was
established to monitor the
military situation, disarmament, and demobilization.
In October
1999 it was replaced as the UN Security Council established the
United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to help implement
the peace
plan and assist the government with disarmament, demobilization,
and law and order.
Also in 1999 six regional States and two Congolese rebel movements
signed a
Ceasefire Agreement to stop hostilities between the
belligerent
forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The United Nations
Organization Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo
(MONUC)
was established to be a liaison between the parties.
In February
2000 MONUC began monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire
and prepared an action plan to implement the Agreement and verify
disengagement and the redeployment of the parties' forces.
In July 2010 MONUC became MONUSCO as the
United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission,
and MONUSCO is still operating in 2024.
In May 2004 the United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) was
authorized
to support the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement
for Burundi
that had been signed at Arusha on 28 August 2000.
Parties in the Ivory Coast region signed a peace agreement in
January 2003,
and the UN Security Council set up the United Nations
Mission
in Côte d'Ivoire (MINUCI) in May 2003.
This was
replaced by the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire
(UNOCI) in April 2004.
The Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement/Army signed
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
in January 2005,
and on March 24 the UN Security Council decided
to establish the
United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) to
support its implementation.
After four factions signed the Agreements on a Comprehensive
Political Settlement
of the Cambodia Conflict on October 23, 1991
in Paris, the United Nations
Transitional Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC) helped to disarm and demobilize
the armed forces, promote
human rights, repatriate refugees, supervise elections,
clear
mines, and generally rehabilitate the country.
Although the Party
of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK) did not participate
in the elections
in late 1992 and early 1993, they were considered successful.
After the new Constitution was adopted on September 21, 1993,
UNTAC ended its mandate.
On August 2, 1990 the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait, and the same
day
the UN Security Council condemned it and demanded that Iraq
withdraw unconditionally.
After ten more similar resolutions that
added naval and air embargos,
the Security Council passed Resolution
678 on November 29,
warning that if Iraq did not implement the
resolutions by January 15, 1991,
Member States would be authorized
"to use all necessary means
to uphold and implement"
the resolutions and restore peace in the region.2
On January 16
a coalition of forces led by the United States launched air attacks
on Iraq.
Ground forces moved into southern Iraq and Kuwait on
February 24
and soon captured Iraqi forces remaining there.
The
US decision to stop the ground war after one hundred hours
allowed
divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard to escape to northern
Iraq,
where they later suppressed rebellions by the Shi'a and
Kurdish majority,
causing refugees to flee toward Turkey and Iran.
On April 3 the Security Council passed Resolution 687 detailing
the terms
of the cease-fire that Iraq accepted three days later.
The United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) was established
to deter boundary violations and for surveillance of the demilitarized
zone.
Resolution 687 also created the following:
The United Nations Special Commission to oversee
the destruction, removal or rendering harmless
of all Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons
and related capabilities and facilities,
and its ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometers.
The Commission has also assisted
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
in the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless
as appropriate of Iraq’s nuclear capabilities.3
UNIKOM became operational as the last US Army unit left Iraq on May 7, 1991.
On December 16, 1990 Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected
president
of Haiti with two-thirds of the vote.
On September 30, 1991 he
was forced into exile by a coup d'état
led by
Lt.
General Raoul Cédras of the High Command of the Haitian
Armed Forces (FADH).
The UN General Assembly condemned this and
the violation
of human rights in Haiti in a resolution on October
11.
Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter on June 16, 1993
the Security Council imposed an oil and arms embargo against Haiti.
A month later a pact was signed in New York to guarantee a peaceful
transition,
and on August 25 the Haitian Parliament ratified Aristide's
appointment
of Robert Malval as designated prime minister.
A month
after that, the Security Council authorized the
United Nations
Mission in Haiti (UNMIH).
Non-compliance by FADH resulted in Secretary-General
Boutros-Ghali
reimposing the sanctions in October.
On July 31, 1994 the UN Security Council authorized Member
States to form
a multinational force to remove the military leadership
and restore Haiti's elected President.
In a final diplomatic effort
former US President Jimmy Carter led a delegation that
got the
Haitian military to cooperate with the military mission led by
the United States,
and on September 19 the 28-nation multinational
force entered Haiti without opposition.
Ten days later the UN
Security Council authorized
the Secretary-General to send in the
UNMIH advance team.
Lt. General Cédras resigned on October
10,
and five days later President Aristide returned to Haiti.
UNMIH helped support professionalization of the national police
and ended its mission in June 1996.
The UN Security Council established
the United Nations Support Mission
in Haiti (UNSMIH) in June 1996
to help train police;
after being extended, the mission was ended
in July 1997.
For the next four months the United Nations Transition
Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH)
bridged the gap until it was replaced
by the United Nations Civilian Police Mission
in Haiti (MIPONUH),
which completed its mandate in March 2000.
On February 29, 2004 United States forces abducted and removed
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti.
Believing that Aristide
had resigned, a few hours later the
UN Security Council authorized
the Multinational Interim Force (MIF).
The United States and France
blocked the UN Security Council
or the 15-member Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) from investigating the
abduction of Aristide which international
law professor, Francis Boyle,
called a violation of the United
Nations Charter.
The UN Security Council transferred authority
from MIF to the
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH)
on April 30, 2004 and in November renewed it for 2005.
After Abkhaz separatists began fighting the government of Georgia
in 1992,
the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG)
was established to verify a cease-fire in 1993.
In May 1994 the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
deployed a peacekeeping
force in Georgia,
and an expanded UNOMIG still observes their
operation.
The United Nations offered its good offices to help resolve
a civil war in Tajikistan in 1992,
and starting in December 1994
the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan
(UNMOT)
began monitoring a cease-fire and the deployed peacekeeping force
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
A peace agreement
was signed in June 1997,
and UNMOT helped implement it before
pulling out in May 2000.
After turmoil in Yugoslavia in the 1980s popular referenda
in Croatia and Slovenia
led to their declaring independence in
June 1991.
That month Serbs living in Croatia began fighting with
support
from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), though in Slovenia
the JNA
withdrew after the European Community mediated an agreement.
On September 25 the UN Security Council called upon all States
to implement
a complete embargo on all weapons to Yugoslavia and
commended the efforts
of the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe (CSCE).
In February 1992 the UN Security Council established
the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR).
On May 22 the
General Assembly admitted into the United Nations
the Republic
of Slovenia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and the Republic
of Croatia.
On May 30 the Security Council invoked Chapter VII
of the UN Charter
to impose sanctions on the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)
in order to stimulate peaceful
settlement of conflicts.
In 1993 US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and European Community
mediator
Lord Owen proposed a peace plan through the International
Conference
on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY), and in 1994 Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
formed the Bosniac-Croat Federation
as territory was
divided between these groups and the Bosnian
Serbs.
The United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in
Croatia (UNCRO)
helped implement a ceasefire and demilitarization
in the Prevlaka peninsula.
Croatia used force to reintegrate Western
Slavonia and Krajina
from May to August 1995 as the UN withdrew
from those areas.
On October 5, 1995 the United States secured
a cease-fire of the fighting
that was raging in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and on November 22
the UN Security Council suspended the sanctions
against Yugoslavia.
UNCRO ended its mission in January 1996.
That
month the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern
Slavonia,
Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) oversaw the Basic
Agreement of
November 1995 that provided for the peaceful integration
of Croatia,
supervising demilitarization, voluntary return of
refugees, and the April 1997 elections.
The United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) replaced
UNPROFOR in March 1995 in Macedonia and monitored the borders
between Yugoslavia and Albania until February 1999.
As the international
force (IFOR) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
was deployed, the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(UNMIBH)
helped implement the General Framework Agreement by coordinating
humanitarian relief,
demining, human rights, elections, and rehabilitation
of infrastructure.
UNMIBH's Police Task Force continues to monitor
law enforcement.
In January 1996 the United Nations Mission of
Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP)
took over from UNCRO the monitoring
of the demilitarization
of the Prevlaka peninsula in southern
Croatia on the border of Yugoslavia.
After the United States and NATO took it upon themselves to
bomb Yugoslavia
in the spring of 1999 for its oppression of Kosovo,
in June the UN Security Council
authorized NATO to lead a security
presence (KFOR)
to demilitarize Kosovo and maintain law and order.
The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
was established to operate as peacekeepers and to exercise administrative
and executive authority, administering justice, rehabilitating
the territory and
preparing Kosovo for elections as an autonomous
province
within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
In August 1999 the United Nations conducted a poll
in which East Timorese chose to separate from Indonesia;
but anti-independence
forces reacted with a campaign of terror.
The UN Security Council
authorized an international force (INTERFET) to restore order
and in October established the United Nations Transitional Administration
in East Timor (UNTAET) to help the East Timorese to become independent,
administer the Territory, organize elections and assure the rule
of law and human rights.
On May 20, 2002 East Timor became an
independent nation with the name Timor-Leste,
and UNTAET was replaced
by the United Nations Mission of Support
in East Timor (UNMISET)
to provide assistance to
the newly elected Timor-Leste government
for three years.
The United Nations has difficulty keeping states in line against
their will,
but the veto has at least kept the superpowers talking
together in the Security Council,
even though they were not always
able to agree.
The General Assembly became a great public forum
for the debate of international issues,
and the developments of
the economic and social functions made progress
in dealing with
many of the root causes of war.
In 1992 the new Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali wrote Agenda for Peace
and suggested
that the United Nations become more active in peacekeeping,
peacemaking,
and what he called "peacebuilding."
With the Cold War
over, this has meant the use of many more military forces,
especially
by the United States.
In 1992 there were about 12,000 military
and police personnel functioning
as UN peacekeepers, but by the
end of 1994 the number had increased
to nearly 80,000, not counting
the 10,000 US troops in Haiti.
In 2004 United Nations peace operations
rotated
120,000 military and civilian police personnel.
In 2005
United Nations peacekeeping was spending an annual budget of
five
billion dollars for operations with about 67,000 military personnel
and civilian police.
The United Nations is far from perfect and
complete as a world organization,
but it has enabled humanity
to take many important steps on the path of social evolution.
1. Security Council Res. 131, 22 November, 1967 in View
from the UN:
The Memoirs of U Thant, p. 492.
2. Quoted in The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping ed. William
J. Durch, p. 259.
3. The Blue Helmets: A Review of United Nations Peacekeeping,
Third edition,
p. 682-683.
This is a chapter in World Peace Efforts Since Gandhi,
which is published as a book.
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