Italian Major-General named new UN Chief Military Observer in India-Pakistan

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today named Maj.-Gen. Guido Palmieri of Italy as Chief Military Observer in the United Nations Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

The 60-year old Major-General's extensive military career includes experience in South Asia, where he attended the Artillery Officers School and Command and Staff Colleges in Quetta, Pakistan. He subsequently served as Assistant Military Attaché in New Delhi, where he had the opportunity to meet UN observers stationed in Srinagar, where UNMOGIP is deployed.

He has held staff and command appointments up to the regiment level. Over the past decade, he has worked with NATO, where he was Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations in 1999 and Deputy Assistant Director of the Cooperation and Regional Security Division from 1999-2002.

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