The three Croatian officers will be a part of the contingent of 134 unarmed military observers. The UNOCI mission also includes some 3,500 soldiers.
Validzic, Belas and Galovic will be engaged in UN efforts aimed at disarmament, demobilisation and refugee returns and will monitor how warring factions honour their commitment to abiding to the peace agreement.
Besides Validzic, Belas and Galovic in Côte d’Ivoire, Croatian officers are currently engaged as unarmed military observers in several other UN missions: there are three officers in the UNMIL in Liberia, five officers in UNMOGIP in India and Pakistan, ten in UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone, seven in UNMEE in Eritrea and Ethiopia, two in MINURSO in Western Sahara and one military psychologist in MINUSTAH in Haiti.
The African country Côte d’Ivoire became a politically volatile area after 1999 when the then president was ousted in a coup. In 2002, a civil war broke out. In 2003 a peace agreement was signed in France and under a UN resolution the UN mission was established.
Having determined that the situation in Côte d’Ivoire continued to pose a threat to international peace and security in the region and acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council, by its resolution 1528 of 27 February 2004, decided to establish the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) as from 4 April 2004. UNOCI replaced the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (MINUCI), a political mission set up by the Council in May 2003 with a mandate to facilitate the implementation by the Ivorian parties of the peace agreement signed by them in January 2003.
In Côte d’Ivoire there are currently UN troops, a French contingent as well as units of the union of West African states that cooperate with the UN forces.