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.

[3][4] 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).

By the end of its first mandate in March 1993, UNPROFOR had some success in restoring peace in Croatia, notably obtaining the removal of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in May 1992.

Local Serb forces managed to complete their cleansing of the UNPA areas, started in 1991, that left only 279 Croats there out of a pre-war population of 102,000.

In the period from 3 July 1992 to 31 January 1993, the humanitarian airlift organised by UNHCR under UNPROFOR protection brought in 2,476 aircraft carrying 27,460 tons of food, medicines and other relief goods.

Distribution of humanitarian aid was disrupted due to non-cooperation and even hostile actions (mines, small arms fire, RPG) of the parties in the field, especially from the Bosnian Serb forces.

Nonetheless, from November 1992 to January 1993, a total of some 34,600 tons of relief supplies had been delivered to an estimated 800,000 beneficiaries in 110 locations throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

[citation needed] In mid-March, unidentified airplanes dropped bombs onto villages in the vicinity of Srebrenica, violating the "No-Flight zones" for the first time.

From March 1993, Serb paramilitary units killed a great number of civilians, destroyed habitations, prevented the UNHCR from delivering humanitarian aid, and forced thousands of Bosnian refugees to flee to the town of Srebrenica.

The Bosnian Serbs, following talks with high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in Moscow, agreed to open the Tuzla airport for humanitarian purposes.

This strongly shaped Western public opinion, as a number of journalists were operating in Sarajevo, and murdered civilians were seen on the evening news on a regular basis.

On 23 February 1994, the cease-fire was brokered between Croat and Bosnian forces – the Washington Agreement – which ended their one-year-long war and united the sides as the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 29 March 1994, in Zagreb, representatives of the Government of Croatia and the local Serb authorities in UNPAs concluded a cease-fire agreement aiming to achieve a lasting cessation of hostilities.

Protests and exhortations from the UN Security Council turned out to be ineffective, and on 10 and 11 April 1994, NATO launched airstrikes against Bosnian Serb positions.

The bombings turned out to be much less effective than the recent Gulf War[citation needed], which had conditioned the public's understanding of airstrikes.

In reaction to this threat, on 21 November, NATO warplanes destroyed the Udbina airstrip, located in the UNPA Sector South in Croatia.

The following days, NATO airplanes struck Bosnian Serb anti-air missiles sites that had previously fired upon British jets.

[24][25] On 26 May 1995, following NATO air raids on Pale as the Bosnian Serbs defied another UN ultimatum on heavy weapons, around 400 Blue Helmets were taken hostage in different parts of Bosnia, brought to strategic points as human shields, and shown in chains on Serbian TV.

A Serb dressed with a blue helmet, French body armour and uniform attempted to take him hostage, but was deterred by the UN escort, and the officer managed to escape.

[citation needed] In the following hours, after intense shelling by ERC 90 Sagaie armoured vehicles, the French stormed the post, killing four Serbs and capturing four others.

[27] At 12 o'clock, the Bosnian Serb radio broadcast that General Mladić had ordered to deploy the captured members of UNPROFOR, and the other foreign citizens who had acted as enemies of the Serbian people, at command posts, depots and other important facilities.

The Serbs are determined to make a point to the whole world.On the 30 May, Ratko Mladić phoned Rupert Smith and agreed to not place Blue Helmets hostages in chains, but to merely "bring" them to strategic sites.

He also 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 Goražde.

[28] 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 subsequently overrun.

When the dual key practices effectively prevented any serious air support from materialising, the Dutch began evacuating women and children.

[11] In retaliation for the NATO bombings, the Serbs proceeded to retrieve their confiscated heavy weapons from the UN-controlled concentration points by force.

General Hervé Gobillard, commanding officer for UN troops in Sarajevo, stated that the peacekeepers were "merely limited in their movements, yet [had] arms, ammunition, food for many days, and strict orders to defend their positions", but in the light of the hostage-takings, concerns were raised and the UN-led bombing stopped.

Their actions included, but were not limited to: Furthermore, the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian civilians by Serbian forces, in an effort to change the demographics, had begun at the start of the war in 1992, in eastern Bosnia.

[33] A great deal of resentment and frustration arose in the participating countries, especially in those whose troops had been in contact with the most dramatic situations, for instance (and not exclusively):