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U.N. extends mandate of EU peacekeepers in Bosnia |
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Tuesday, 22 November 2005UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Monday renewed for an additional year the mandate of the European peacekeeping force in Bosnia.
Renewal through November 20, 2006, came in a resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council on the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accords ending the war in Bosnia.
Nearly 7,000 European Union troops took over peacekeeping duties in Bosnia from a NATO-led force last December.
The resolution aims to ensure the continuity of the peace process and of "the generally positive developments" in the region, said Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov, the council president for November.
The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia -- a Balkan country of 4 million people known formally as Bosnia and Herzegovina -- killed as many as 200,000 Muslims, Serbs and Croats and gave rise to the term "ethnic cleansing."
The conflict began when Bosnian Serbs reacted with armed resistance to Bosnia's declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia. It ended in the November 21, 1995, initialling of the Dayton peace deal, which divided Bosnia into a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb Republic.
A fragile period of rebuilding followed, capped by the European Union's agreement to open preparatory talks with Bosnia on membership this Friday, although EU entry is seen around 2015 at the earliest.
EU ministers have hailed progress made by Bosnia since the end of the war and said that progress on boosting its EU ties would depend on the speed of reforms and efforts to hand over key war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.
Bosnia "now stands at the gates of Europe," Paddy Ashdown, the U.N. high representative for the country, told the council last week. "This is a truly remarkable achievement for a country as war-torn as Bosnia and Herzegovina was just 10 years ago."
The resolution reaffirmed the council's commitment to the terms of the Dayton accords and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region.
It also reaffirmed the council's readiness to consider imposing measures such as sanctions "if any party fails significantly to meet its obligations under the peace agreement."
Reuters via swissinfo
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Tuesday, 22 November 2005
swissinfo.org
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