Vance plan The Vance plan ( , ) was a peace plan negotiated by the Special Envoy of the Secretary - General of the United Nations Cyrus Vance , aided by United States diplomat Herbert Okun in November 1991 . It was designed to implement a ceasefire during the Croatian War of Independence , demilitarize parts of Croatia under control of Croatian Serb s and the Yugoslav People ' s Army ( JNA ) and allow return of refugees and create favourable conditions for negotiations on a permanent political settlement of the conflict resulting from breakup of Yugoslavia . The first agreement , known as the Geneva Accord , on the peace plan was signed by Yugoslav defence minister General Veljko Kadijević , President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević and Croatian President Franjo Tuđman in Geneva , Switzerland on 23 November 1991 . Since a ceasefire agreed there did not hold , further negotiations resulted in an Implementation Agreement of 2 January 1992 . The Implementation Agreement , signed in Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina by JNA General Andrija Rašeta and Croatian defence minister Gojko Šušak , produced a more lasting ceasefire , supervised by the United Nations Protection Force ( UNPROFOR ) , but failed to implement the remaining major aspects of the Vance plan completely . Background . In August 1990 , an insurgency known as the Log Revolution took place in Croatia centred on the predominantly Serb - populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around the city of Knin , as well as in parts of the Lika , Kordun , and Banovina regions , and settlements in eastern Croatia with significant Serb populations . The areas were subsequently named the Republic of Serbian Krajina ( RSK ) and , after declaring its intention to integrate with Serbia , the Government of Croatia declared the RSK a rebellion . By March 1991 , the conflict escalated resulting in the Croatian War of Independence . In June 1991 , Croatia declared its independence as Yugoslavia disintegrated . A three - month moratorium on Croatia ' s and the RSK ' s declarations followed , after which the decision came into effect on 8 October . As the Yugoslav People ' s Army ( JNA ) increasingly supported the RSK and the Croatian Police was unable to cope with the situation , the Croatian National Guard ( ZNG ) was formed in May 1991 . The ZNG was renamed the Croatian Army ( HV ) in November . The establishment of the military of Croatia was hampered by a UN arms embargo introduced in September . The final months of 1991 saw the fiercest fighting of the war , culminating in the Battle of the Barracks , the Siege of Dubrovnik , and the Battle of Vukovar . Geneva Accord . Vance plan was a result of a diplomatic mission by the Special Envoy of the Secretary - General of the United Nations Cyrus Vance , aided by United States diplomat Herbert Okun , and Under - Secretary - General of the United Nations for Special Political Affairs Marrack Goulding , to SFR Yugoslavia aimed at a negotiated end of hostilities in Croatia in late 1991 . The plan proposed a ceasefire , protection of civilians in specific areas designated as United Nations Protected Areas and a United Nations ( UN ) peacekeepers in Croatia . The plan was first presented to Slobodan Milošević , president of Serbia at the time . Milošević found the plan wholly acceptable and promised that he would ensure the leadership of the RSK eventually supports it . He endorsed the plan as it ensured preservation of Serbian territorial gains of 1991 , Serb administration of the areas where the peacekeepers would be deployed while allowing JNA to shift its focus to Bosnia and Herzegovina . Vance met Yugoslav defence minister JNA General Veljko Kadijević next , when Kadijević also endorsed the plan , apparently urged by Milošević to do so . After the plan was accepted by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman , the Geneva Accord to the effect was signed by Tuđman , Milošević and Kadijević , Yugoslav defence minister in Geneva , Switzerland on 23 November 1991 . The accord was a precondition for deployment of the peacekeeping force . It comprised four points , providing for the end of the Croatian blockade of the JNA barracks , withdrawal of JNA personnel and equipment from Croatia , implementation of a ceasefire and facilitation of delivery of humanitarian aid . The parties to the accord also agreed to deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in Croatia . The mission was later initiated through subsequent United Nations Security Council Resolution 721 of 27 November , following a formal request for deployment of the peacekeepers submitted by the Yugoslav government the previous day . Vance plan was approved , as a part of the Report of the UN Secretary - General pursuant to the UN Security Council Resolution 721 submitted on 11 December , by the UN Security Council Resolution 724 of 15 December . The new resolution determined that conditions were not established yet to deploy the peacekeepers . The UN deployed 50 liaison officers to prepare the mission instead , as combat continued throughout 1991 . The blockade of the JNA barracks located in the HV - controlled territory remained in place until December 1991 . In the final ten - day round of meetings Vance negotiated another ceasefire agreement as a provisional arrangement , backed by deployment of UN peacekeepers to oversee it . The final obstacles to the agreement were removed when Tuđman agreed to lift blockade of the remaining JNA barracks in the HV - held territory on 25 December , thereby meeting Kadijević ' s stated condition for the truce , and when Milošević declared he had no objections to the plan on 31 December . Implementation Agreement . The final agreement would later become known as the Vance plan , and as the Implementation Agreement , or the Sarajevo Agreement ( ) . The UN deployment was made possible by recognition that the agreement does not represent a final political settlement and by a description of the UN mission allowing both sides in the war to claim it as their victory . The RSK claimed the situation allowed for maintenance of RSK authorities until a final political settlement was reached , virtually ensuring the RSK had no incentive to negotiate . Croatia believed that the UN would restore the area to Croatian authority — which the UN would not even try to achieve . After four hours of negotiations , the agreement was signed by Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Šušak and deputy commander of the JNA ' s 5th military district General Andrija Rašeta in Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina , on 2 January . It was the 15th ceasefire agreement signed since the start of the Croatian War of Independence . The ceasefire generally held , after it took effect on 3 January , at 6 pm . The main exception in the ceasefire was the Dubrovnik area , where the JNA held positions around Dubrovnik and in Konavle until July 1992 . That area was not mentioned by the UN peacekeeper deployment schedule . On 4 January , the Yugoslav Navy retreated from the Lora ( Split ) military harbor . On 5 January , Imra Agotić noted 84 ceasefire violation incidents by the Serb side . On 7 January , the Yugoslav Air Force downed an ECMM helicopter . The next day Veljko Kadijević resigned as Minister of Defence and was replaced by Blagoje Adžić . The Vance plan was designed to stop hostilities in Croatia and allow negotiations by neutralizing any influence caused by fighting and it offered no political solutions in advance . The plan entailed deployment of the 10 , 000 - strong United Nations Protection Force ( UNPROFOR ) to the major conflict areas known as three UN Protected Areas ( UNPAs ) . The plan listed specific municipalities that were to be included in the UNPAs , but exact borders of the UNPAs were not defined entirely as several municipalities were scheduled to be included in part only . The task of defining the exact borders was delegated to the UN liaison officers deployed in advance , in cooperation with authorities in the area . Creation of the UNPAs was necessary for acceptance of the plan by Milošević and Tuđman . Serb - dominated Yugoslavia originally requested deployment of a UN force along a zone between Serb and Croatian areas , reflecting Serb desire to see the peacekeeping force securing lines of confrontation . Conversely , Croatia wanted the UN force along its international borders — and the UNPAs served to formally satisfy all of them . UNPROFOR was tasked with creating a buffer between the belligerents , disarm Croatian Serb Territorial Defence Force , oversee JNA and HV pullout from the UNPAs and return of refugees to the area . The United Nations Security Council Resolution 743 of 21 February , described legal basis of the UN mission , requested and agreed upon in November 1991 , with no explicit reference to the Chapter VI or the Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter . RSK president Milan Babić refused to endorse the plan , and Milošević summoned him to Belgrade where Serb members of the federal presidency , JNA commanders , Bosnian Serb leaders and Milošević tried to persuade Babić to change his mind in a seventy hours long meeting . Failing to do so , Milošević arranged to have the RSK parliament approve the plan . Babić ' s and Milošević ' s supporters organized two separate yet concurrent parliamentary sessions — each group proclaiming their own victory . On 27 February , Babić was removed from office following an intervention by Milošević , and replaced by Goran Hadžić . Babić ' s resistance to the Vance plan was caused by his view that acceptance of the plan and replacing of the JNA with the UNPROFOR would represent a de facto acceptance of Croatian sovereignty over the territory held by the RSK , as the Vance plan treated the RSK territory as a part of Croatia . Croatia saw the UNPAs as Croatian soil , objecting to any official capacity being allowed to the RSK officials in the area . It feared that the RSK would use the UN mission to consolidate itself . In response , Croatian authorities considered the authorities in Belgrade , the UN and Croatia to be the only parties to the plan . Aftermath . Despite the Geneva Accord requiring an immediate withdrawal of JNA personnel and equipment from Croatia , the JNA stayed behind for seven to eight months . When its troops eventually pulled out , JNA left their equipment to the RSK . The 2 January ceasefire also allowed the JNA to hold onto the positions in East and West Slavonia , which were on the brink of military collapse . As a consequence of organizational problems and breaches of the last ceasefire agreement , the UNPROFOR did not start to deploy until 8 March , and took two months to fully assemble in the UNPAs . Even though the UNPROFOR placed most heavy RSK ' s weapons in storage controlled jointly by the UN and the RSK by January 1993 , the peacekeeping mission turned unable to fulfill provisions of the Vance plan — disarmament of RSK militia , return of refugees , restoration of civilian authority and establishment of an ethnically mixed police . It also failed to remove RSK forces from areas outside designated UNPAs which were under RSK control at the time of signing of the Implementation Agreement ceasefire . Those areas , later better known as the pink zones , were supposed to be restored to Croatian control from the outset of the plan implementation . Failure of this aspect of the implementation of the Vance plan made the pink zones a major source of contention for Croatia and the RSK . In 1993 , Croatia launched several small - scale military offensives against the RSK to seize significant local objectives and capture international attention , worried that the situation on the ground might become permanent . In response , the RSK military retrieved their weapons from the UN / RSK controlled storage sites , reversing the only major success of the UNPROFOR . In March 1995 , the UNPROFOR mission was terminated following efforts of the United States Ambassador Richard Holbrooke , and United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation was deployed to Croatia as a new peacekeeping force . Later that year , the bulk of the territory controlled by the RSK was captured by the HV in Operations Flash and Storm , as expected by Babić when he opposed the Vance plan in 1991 . The rest of the RSK held areas were regained by Croatia following the Erdut Agreement negotiated between Croatian and Serbian authorities on 12 November 1995 , during peace talks that also produced the Dayton Agreement .