The Canadian mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina officially ends Monday with a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Sarajevo.
Only six Canadian soldiers are stationed in the country, compared to 2,000 at the height of the operation.
Canadian military personnel began deploying to the region in 1991 after Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia.
In March 1992, Canadian Major General Lewis MacKenzie became the first commander of the UN peacekeeping mission for the region.
Two weeks later war broke out.
"There was never any intention that the UN would have any responsibility in Bosnia, it was strictly a location to put the headquarters for the operation in Croatia," MacKenzie, who is now retired, told CTV's Canada AM.
He said it was a rare mission in which frontline troops were in a safer position than their headquarters. Sarajevo was bombed by artillery fire, and its main boulevard became known as "Sniper Alley."
The UN headquarters was forced out of the city in June 1992.
About 100,000 people were killed in the war, and more than 1.3 million were displaced.
MacKenzie retired in 1993, and at the time, was fiercely critical of the UN mission. He still maintains the UN mission was poorly-planned.
"While the war was raging from 1992 to1995 we had a lightly armed peacekeeping force, so don't ask me to explain that," Mackenzie said.
About 40,000 Canadian military personnel have served in the region as peacekeepers since the early 1990s.
According to the Canadian embassy responsible for Bosnia and Herzegovina, 23 soldiers have died in the operation. One died as a result of enemy action, while the rest were killed in accidents.
The Canadian International Demining Corps have also helped train and provide for 40 mine detection dogs for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe's most heavily mined country.
Some participants in the conflict are still facing war crimes today.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is currently under trial at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.
MacKenzie has been called on to testify in the proceedings.
