Former Yugoslavia.

• Position: UN's peacekeeping efforts - Peacewatch

The first year of the implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina was overall a "year of success", High Representative Carl Bildt reported on 9 December. "But each step forward we have taken has also demonstrated how many more are the steps which must be taken for the peace process to be self-sustaining and stable", he stressed.

While human rights was the "key to most other aspects of political and civilian implementation" of the Peace Agreement, the High Representative regretted to report that overall situation remained "deeply unsatisfactory throughout the territory of the country".

There was no denying that the "drift towards ethnic separation" was continuing, and the forces of ethnic separation were "still stronger than the forces of ethnic reintegration. But the trend is by no means irreversible", he stated. "As peace takes hold, and as the economy throughout the country starts to revive, the interaction between the different parts of the country is bound to increase. If human rights are respected, we will then start to see the country coming back together again. It must be a central aim of the international efforts to ensure that this will be the case," Mr. Bildt stressed.

Also, "our commitment to peace in this part of Europe must be longer than one year and wider in geographic scope than just Bosnia". The international community must be ready to "do whatever can be done in order to facilitate the full respect for human and political rights for each and everyone" in Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), Mr. Bildt stated.

In a 22 January letter, transmitting the first monthly report on the Stabilization Force (SFOR) operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, established under Security Council resolution 1088 (1996) to succeed the Implementation Force (IFOR), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Javier Solana said that the overall situation in the theatre had been calm. However, "ethnic tensions persist and we in the international community cannot afford to underestimate the challenges ahead. As we face these challenges, I can assure you that SFOR will implement its mandate as professionally as IFOR, and it will play its full part in helping to bring lasting peace to Bosnia and Herzegovina," Mr. Solana assured.

On 24 March, he reported that approximately 31,000 SFOR troops were deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "Concepts are now in place for the use and exercising of operational reserves from within the theatre and strategic reserves from outside the theatre in order to give the force enhanced flexibility and to reinforce its deterrent role", the report said.

Resolution 1103: UNMBIH increased

In order to enable the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMBIH) to monitor, restructure and retrain police in the Brcko area and carry out its mandate under the 1995 General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Agreement), the Security Council on 31 March increased the Mission's strength by 186 police and 11 civilian personnel.

By unanimously adopting resolution 1103 (1997), the Council also decided to "consider expeditiously" the Secretary-General's recommendations that the International Police Task Force (IPTF) be strengthened with an additional 120 police personnel, so that it could effectively carry out all its tasks related to the investigation of human rights abuses by local police.

Member States were urged to provide "qualified police monitors and other forms of assistance and support" to the United Nations IPTF, as the Council called upon all parties to the Peace Agreement to implement all its aspects and "cooperate in full with the UN-IPTF in the conduct of its activities".

On 4 February, Kai Eide of Norway was named the Secretary-General's Special Representative and Coordinator of United Nations Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A 'tremendous experience'

Peter Fitzgerald, the outgoing Commissioner of the IPTF in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the press at Headquarters on 12 February that his year in office had been a "tremendous experience". He was confident that his successor, Manfred Seitner of Denmark, who was very experienced, had a "good foundation to build on".

Following some...