Austrian general to lead UN military observers in India and Pakistan

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today named an Austrian Major-General as Chief Military Observer of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

Hermann K. Loidolt will replace Major-General Manuel L. Saavedra of Uruguay, who has been UNMOGIP's Chief Military Observer since 11 July 2000.

General Loidolt, who has over 30 years of experience in the Austrian Armed Forces, is currently serving as the Director of Information Technology Acquisition in the Ministry of Defence. He also served in the Austrian Battalion of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights from 1976 to 1977.

UNMOGIP was deployed in January 1949 to supervise the ceasefire agreed between India and Pakistan in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Since renewed hostilities in 1971, UNMOGIP monitors the ceasefire called for by the Security Council.