Cenepa War
Figures given for losses during the Cenepa War vary widely, especially regarding human casualties. Ecuadorian military sources put the casualties at 34 killed recognized by Comando Conjunto de las FFAA del Ecuador and 154 killed and wounded recognized by Asociación de ex combatientes del Cenepa, Quito, Ecuador. As of February 2005, an Ecuadorian Cenepa war veterans' association had a membership of 131 ex-combatants, some of them with long-term health disorders caused by the war.
ALDHU, a human rights NGO, has put the total number of mortal casualties for both sides at around 500. This figure was also given by Ecuadorian senior officers after the war, reflecting the fact that Peruvians found themselves attacking well-protected Ecuadorian positions and subjected to continuous ambushes and well-aimed artillery and rocket fire from the heights of the Condor range.
Avdo Palić
During the war Avdo and Esma Palić married; the couple had two daughters. Esma came to Žepa, her hometown on 29 March 1992, to visit her relatives. Her future husband joined her shortly thereafter, when he came to visit his father in Vlasenica. When the war started in early April, Vlasenica fell to the Serb forces and Palić came to Žepa, where he became the commander of the local unit of the Territorial Defence Force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and subsequently the commander of all Bosnian government forces in the area (which would eventually become known as the ARBiH 285th Light Mountain Brigade).
On 4 June 1992, a 40-vehicle convoy of JNA troops was sent from Pale to occupy Žepa. As it passed through a canyon on the way to the town it was ambushed by Palić and his men. The defenders of Žepa were not adequately armed and equipped to stop the convoy so they also dislodged boulders and rolled logs down into the canyon in effort to stop the attack. Forty-five JNA soldiers were killed and another 31 were captured. All of the captured Serb soldiers were later exchanged for food. Following that unsuccessful attempt to occupy Žepa the Serbs laid siege for the next three years.
The Žepa enclave was in a remote, mountainous and heavily forested area and was completely surrounded by the Republika Srpska rebel army which regularly and indiscriminately shelled the enclave. Žepa was entirely dependent on outside supplies of food and medicine which were supposed to be delivered by the Ukrainian UNPROFOR peacekeepers, but the deliveries were consistently obstructed by the Serbs. Nevertheless, the defenders of Žepa were able to hold out in spite of a severe lack of weapons and ammunition. Nearly all of their weapons were captured from the enemy or were smuggled in on foot or by helicopter from the Bosnian government controlled areas.
On 6 May 1993, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 824. The resolution declared six areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina including Žepa, as "safe areas" and declared that they "should be free from armed attacks and any other hostile act".