About the event
On 14th December, exactly 30 years since the final signatures on the peace agreement which ended the war, the RBL remembered the service and sacrifices of personnel in the Operations in Bosnia.
British Armed Forces veterans, along with family, friends and guests, attended a poignant sunset ceremony at the National Memorial Arboretum to commemorate the crucial role played by them in the peace support operations since 1992.
Personnel who served in Bosnia reflected on their experiences, and wreaths were laid and votive lights hung within the Armed Forces Memorial, on which the names of those who lost their lives while on service in Bosnia are engraved.
About the Operations in Bosnia
The nature of the service we ask of our Armed Forces is continually changing.
This December the Royal British Legion remembers the 30th anniversary of the end of the Bosnian War, and the crucial contribution of British Forces in the international efforts to secure and maintain peace, including NATO’s first peace-support mission. A special commemorative event will be held at the National Memorial Arboretum.
Following the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of Yugoslavia saw its republics declaring independence. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) had a shared government reflecting its mixed ethnic composition with a Bosnian Muslim majority. In a referendum the overwhelming majority voted for independence in March 1992.
A potential Bosnian nation that had a Muslim majority was opposed by Bosnian Serbs, who launched military action to secure territory and began a systematic programme against the Muslim population. They also targeted Bosnian Croats. The subsequent civil war saw bitter fighting; and emerging accounts of atrocities alarmed the international community.
First British Forces Arrive
In September 1992, the United Nations authorised the deployment in Bosnia of a multinational Protection Force, with the first British ground forces arriving soon after. These, and subsequent units, were sent to protect vital convoys of food and medicine, monitor ceasefires and patrol and gather intelligence. Later duties involved overseeing designated safe zones the challenges of mine clearance and infrastructure rebuilding.
The personnel from the UK and other countries were frequently on the front lines, and between the combatants of an unremitting war which saw indiscriminate shelling of towns and cities such as the Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo where more than 11,000 people were killed. The conflict also saw the committing of war crimes. These included massacres and UN-recognised genocide (most infamously at Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed).
RAF and Fleet Air Arm pilots served as part of NATO’s enforcement of a no fly zone, and carried out air strikes to protect UN-designated safe havens. The fighting ended after a 12-day NATO air campaign against Bosnian Serb targets paved the way to a peace agreement, the Dayton Accord, which received its final signatures on 14th December 1995. More than 100,000 people had been killed, and 2.2 million (more than half the population) displaced across the region.
NATO’s First Peace-Support Mission
Under the terms of the peace agreement, NATO deployed peacekeepers for the first time, leading a 60,000-strong Implementation Force (IFOR), including thousands of British men and women. In a year this was replaced with the smaller Stabilisation Force (SFOR) and as stability returned troops were progressively withdrawn. By 2020 UK personnel had been withdrawn, although specialists in security remain and British forces engage in training exercises with their Bosnian counterparts.
A total of 36 NATO and partner countries had contributed troops, and had suffered hundreds of military and civilian casualties in the operations. British forces lost 59 military personnel, and many dozens were seriously injured. The harrowing nature of the security work resulted in many suffering from trauma, including PTSD, and they continue to live with the impact of what they witnessed.
We pay tribute to the men and women of British forces who served in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we are privileged to tell their stories of service in a changing world.
