Fact sheet: UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM). (United Nations)

On April 3, 1991, following extensive consultations, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 687 (see Dispatch, Vol. 2, No. 14) setting specific terms for a formal cease-fire between Iraq and Kuwait and the member states cooperating with Kuwait. In paragraph 5 of the resolution, the Security Council established a demilitarized zone along the boundary between Iraq and Kuwait and requested the Secretary General to submit to the council, within 3 days, a plan for the immediate deployment of a UN observer unit.

Following consultations with the governments of Kuwait and Iraq, Secretary General Perez de Cuellar submitted his plan for a "United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission" (UNIKOM) on April 6, 1991. On April 9, the Security Council approved the plan and decided to set up UNIKOM for the initial period of 6 months. The first group of UN observers left for the …