In November 1992, UNTAC had been in a serious quandary about whether to abandon the mission, postpone it and hope for conditions in Cambodia to improve, or continue under the then-present reality. On 30 November, following the advice of the secretary general, the UN Security Council formally authorized UNTAC's military component to remain in Cambodia in full strength and help complete the civilian part of the mission. The combined civil-military operation now centered on the organization of free and fair elections for more than four million Cambodians who had never had the right to vote and had to be convinced that their vote would be secret and would matter. However, security progressively broke down instead of improving during UNTAC's presence in Cambodia – obviously the envisaged pattern for peace operations. Holding elections amidst continued military confrontations and political violence, with overall public safety dramatically deteriorating as a result of banditry, demanded an unprecedented degree of cooperation and coordination between soldiers and civilians. Although the military role in support of the civilians in charge of the electoral process has been recognized in publications on UNTAC, there has been little appreciation of the extent to which the military component slowly but surely took over key civilian responsibilities amidst escalating violence in Cambodia during 1993.

Flexible Response

Many commentators had written off UNTAC by the end of 1992. The mission was criticized as being soft on the Khmer Rouge and for failing to control the State of Cambodia's government structures. With the two largest factions fully armed, and neither party's administrative structures in check, there was indeed little reason for optimism if the original plan was to be achieved. The precondition for elections, the ‘neutral political environment’ was all but absent. The Khmer Rouge was eager to disrupt the elections, which it boycotted, and the State of Cambodia relied on the use of force to obstruct and intimidate its political adversaries. CivPol was nowhere near establishing control over the state police and, due to lack of administrative control of the government, state resources continued to flow freely to the Cambodia People's Party (CPP), which represented the State of Cambodia in the elections.