| Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC January 2, 2003 UN Mission in Bosnia and HerzegovinaOn December 21, 1995, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1035, setting up the UN International Police Task Force and a UN Civil Affairs Office. These were brought together as the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The UN Mission (UNMIBH) was created to help implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (also referred to as the as the Dayton-Paris Agreement). It was "under the authority of the Secretary-General and subject to coordination and guidance as appropriate" of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina appointed to oversee the Agreement’s implementation.
On December 31, 2002, the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina completed its mandate. The European Union Police Mission (EUPM) assumed international police monitoring duties in Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 1, 2003. The International Police Task Force has reformed and restructured local police personnel and organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reducing the bloated local police forces from over 40,000 personnel in 1996 to approximately 20,000 today. Through this process, the UN has also de-certified officers who were without proper training or education and those who participated in war crimes or other violations of the law. In addition, the UN worked to improve recruitment of officers from minority groups within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska and mentored local police in leadership positions. The UN was instrumental in making the State Border Service operational so that it now controls all land borders and the country’s three international airports. It is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first state-level, multi-ethnic law enforcement agency, and already appears to have cut down dramatically on illegal entry into the country. This has important ramifications for the fight against trans-national crime and terrorism. The UN’s Special Trafficking Operation Program ( STOP) raised public awareness of trafficking in persons in the country and the region, and monitored raids by local police of bars and nightclubs suspected of trafficking. The STOP program oversaw some 800 such raids and aided scores of trafficking victims to escape their plight. The United States hopes the international community and the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue strong efforts in this area. President Bush made a campaign pledge that he would promote better burden sharing in the Balkans, and the successful transfer of this core mission exemplifies his commitment to that pledge.
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