UN peace-keeping around the world.

UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM)

Established: April 1991

Strength: 320 military personnel and 188 civilian staff

Mandate: To monitor the 40-kilometre-long Khor Abdullah Waterway and the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two countries, using observation posts and land and air patrols, to deter boundary violations and to observe any hostile or potentially hostile actions. In February 1993, the Security Council transformed UNIKOM from an observer contingent into an armed force capable of preventing small-scale violations of the DMZ, authorizing an increase in personnel to some 3,600.

UN Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL)

Established: July 1991

Strength: 380 military and police personnel, 250 civilian staff.

Mandate: To verify implementation of agreements between El Salvador and the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN). These concern: maintaining the cease-fire, reform and reduction of armed forces, creation of a new police force, reform of the judicial and electoral systems, human rights, land tenure and other economic and social issues. Some 900 electoral observers are to assist in the scheduled March 1994 elections.

UN Mission for the Referendum in

Western Sahara (MINURSO)

Established: September 1991

Strength: 225 military observers, 100 military support personnel and 103 civilian staff

Mandate: Originally to monitor a cease-fire, verify reduction of Moroccan troops in the Territory, monitor confinement of troops to designated locations, ensure the release of all Western Saharan political prisoners or detainees, oversee the exchange of prisoners of war, implement the repatriation programme, identify and register qualified voters, organize and ensure a free referendum and proclaim the results. Due to divergent views, the plan has not been fully implemented.

UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR)

Established: February 1992

Strength: 24,000 military and civilian personnel: 14,000 in Croatia, 9,200 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 750 in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Mandate: Croatia: Established in March 1992 as an interim arrangement to create conditions of peace and security required for negotiating an overall settlement. Deployed in three "United Nations Protected Areas" (UNPAs) in Croatia, to ensure a demilitarization process.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: In June 1992, UNPROFOR was enlarged to ensure the security and functioning of the Sarajevo airport and delivery of humanitarian assistance. in September 1992, it was further enlarged to support humanitarian relief. Since November 1992, UNPROFOR has monitored the ban on military flights. In June 1993, it was authorized to use force in response to bombardments or attacks against "safe areas" or deliberate destruction of humanitarian convoys.

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: In December 1992, UNPROFOR was deployed, on request of the country's President, to monitor border areas and report on any potentially destabilizing activity.

UN Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda

(UNOMUR)

Established: June 1993

Strength: 81 military observers and 24 civilian staff

Mandate: Monitoring the Uganda/Rwanda border to verify that no military assistance reaches Rwanda, focusing primarily on "transit or transport, by roads or tracks" of weapons and ammunition across that border, as well as "any other material which could be of military use".

UN Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)

Established: March 1964

Strength: 1,480 military personnel and 38 civilian police

Mandate: To use its best efforts to prevent the recurrence of fighting and to contribute to the maintenance and restoration of law and order and a return to normal conditions. Since the hostilities in 1974, this has included supervising the cease-fire and maintaining a buffer zone between the lines of the Cyprus National Guard and of the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot forces.

UN Angola Verification Mission II

(UNAVEM II)

Established: June 1991

Strength: 75 military observers, 28 police observers, 115 civilian staff

Mandate: Established to verify the arrangements agreed to by the Angolan parties for monitoring the cease-fire and observing and verifying elections. Despite the UN declaration that the September 1992 elections were generally free and fair, their results were contested, and renewed fighting broke out. Since then, UNAVEM II has sought to help the two sides agree on ways to restore peace.

UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)

Established: June 1948

Strength: 224 military observers

Mandate: Established in 1948 to assist the Mediator and the Truce Commission in supervising the observance of the truce in Palestine. UNTSO supervises the General Armistice Agreements of 1949 and the observation c the cease-fire in the Suez Canal area and the Golan Heights which followed the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967. It also cooperates with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Observer groups are stationed in Beirut and in the Sinai.

UN Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ)

Established: December 1992

Strength: Between 7,000 and 8,000 military and civilian personnel

Mandate: To facilitate implementation of the 4 October 1992 Rome Agreement, in particular by chairing the Supervisory and Monitoring Commission and its subsidiary bodies; to monitor and verify the cease-fire, demobilization and complete withdrawal of foreign forces, and to provide security in transport corridors; to monitor and verify the disbanding of private armed groups; to authorize security arrangements for vital infrastructures; to provide security for UN activities; to provide technical assistance and monitor the entire electoral process; and to coordinate and monitor humanitarian assistance operations, in particular those relating to refugees, internally displaced persons, demobilized military personnel and the affected local population.

UN interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

Established: March 1978

Strength: 5,280 troops, assisted by 57 military observers of UNTSO's Observer Group Lebanon, and 520 civilian staff

Mandate: To confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, restore international peace and security, and assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.

UN Disengagement Observer Force (U

Established: June 1974

Strength: 1,120 troops, assisted by observers of UNTSO's Observer Group Golan.

Mandate: To supervise the cease-fire between Israel and Syria; the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces; and the areas of separation and limitation, as provided in the Agreement on Disengagement between Israeli and Syrian forces of 31 May 1974.

UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan

(UNMOGIP)

Established: January 1949

Strength: 38 military observers

Mandate: To supervise, in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the cease-fire between India and Pakistan

UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia

(UNTAC)

Established: March 1992

Strength: 22,000 military and civilian personnel

Mandate: To organize and conduct free and fair general elections (23-28 May 1993), and help oversee civil administration, human rights situation, the maintenance of law and order, repatriation and resettlement of refugees and displaced persons, and the rehabilitation of infrastructure. The transitional period will end when a constituent assembly is elected and a new Cambodian Constitution approved.

UN Operation in Somalia II

(UNOSOM II)

Established: April 1993

Strength: 28,000 military personnel and 2,800 civilian staff

Mandate: UNOSOM was originally established in April 1992 to monitor a cease-fire, provide security for UN personnel and supplies and escort humanitarian supplies to distribution centres. In August 1992, UNOSOM was strengthened so it could better protect convoys and distribution centres throughout Somalia. The Security Council authorized in December 1992 the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), organized and led by the United States, to use "all necessary means" to establish a secure environment for humanitarian relief operations in Somalia. In March 1993, the Security Council, citing concerns over "crippling famine and drought" compounded by civil strife, created UNOSOM if to replace UNITAF UNOSOM II is the largest peace-keeping force in UN history and the first authorized to use force under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. It also assists in rebuilding Somalia's government and economy.