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1 (March 14, 2005)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthabcjl0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21774 Updated March 14, 2005 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Bosnia and the European Union Military Force (EUFOR): Post-NATO Transition Julie Kim Specialist in International Relations Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Summary On December 2, 2004, NATO formally concluded its Stabilization Force (SFOR) mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina and handed over peace stabilization duties to a European Union force (EUFOR). The mission of the EU's Operation Althea is to ensure continued compliance with the Dayton peace agreement and contribute to a secure environment and Bosnia's efforts towards European integration. The 7,000-strong operation constitutes the largest EU military mission to date. NATO retains a small headquarters presence in Sarajevo, with some U.S. forces, to assist with defense reforms, counterterrorism efforts, and the apprehension of wanted war crimes suspects, many of whom are believed to be hiding in or transiting through Bosnia. This report may be updated as events warrant. A related CRS product is CRS Report RL32392, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Issues for U.S. Policy. SFOR Background and U.S. Policy Bosnia and Herzegovina is approaching the 10'h anniversary of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, which ended a 3 -year war that pitted Bosnia's Muslim, Croat, and Serb communities against one another. NATO first deployed an Implementation Force (IFOR) of nearly 60,000 troops to Bosnia to enforce compliance with the military aspects of the Dayton accords. Though IFOR' s performance in fulfilling its military tasks was widely viewed to be a success, the continued need for an external military presence to provide a secure environment in Bosnia led NATO to replace IFOR with a smaller Stabilization Force (SFOR, initially about 32,000 troops) in December 1996. NATO extended SFOR a second time in June 1998, this time without a specified end-date. Instead, NATO outlined a number of benchmarks to measure progress toward a self- sustaining peace in Bosnia. The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO' s original IFOR mission in December 1995, the follow-on SFOR mission one year later, and has Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress