Polish officer appointed new commander of UN Israel-Syria ceasefire force

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed a Polish veteran of United Nations military operations in the Middle East as the new commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Syria along the Golan Heights for nearly 30 years.

Major-General Franciszek Gagor of Poland, at present commander of the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), which is being phased out, will take over from Major-General Bo Wranker on 13 August.

Gen. Gagor has served in the Polish armed forces for 34 years. He served as a senior interpreter in the Second UN Emergency Force (UNEF II) from 1976 to 1977, as Chief Operations Officer of the Polish Battalion in UNDOF in 1980 and 1985, as Deputy Chief Logistics Officer in UNDOF from 1989 to 1990, and as Deputy Sector Commander in UNIKOM in 1992 before becoming its commander in January.

He graduated from the Higher Military School of Mechanized Infantry in Warsaw in 1973 and holds a master’s degree from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and a Ph.D. from the Polish Academy of National Defence in Warsaw.