SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS NEW FORCE COMMANDER FOR UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA
| Press Release SG/A/819 AFR/493 BIO/3463 |
Biographical Note
SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS NEW FORCE COMMANDER FOR UNITED NATIONS
MISSION IN ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has today appointed Major-General Robert Gordon of the United Kingdom as the new Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). The Major-General is expected to arrive in the Mission area by late October 2002.
Born on 23 November 1950, Maj-Gen. Gordon joined the 17th/21st Lancers Regiment in 1970, and served as an officer in reconnaissance, armour and on foot in England, Cyprus, Germany, Northern Ireland and Canada.
On promotion to colonel in 1992, he was appointed Secretary to the Chiefs of Staff Committee in the Ministry of Defence until 1994, when he took command of the 19th Mechanised Brigade. In that post, he went to Bosnia in October 1994, assuming command of United Nations Sector South West Bosnia and the British Forces in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia.
From 1997, he was Director for Army Public Relations in the Ministry of Defence, before assuming command of the 2nd Division in York in the rank of Major-General in May 1999. In April 2000, he moved the Divisional Headquarters to Edinburgh to take command of the Army in the North of England and Scotland.
Maj-Gen. Gordon was educated at St. Catharine's College Cambridge, where he read modern history, and is a graduate of the Higher Command and Staff Course (1994) and the Royal College of Defence Studies (1996). He is married with two sons.
Maj-Gen. Gordon replaces Maj-Gen. Patrick C. Cammaert (Netherlands), who completes his tour of duty on 31 October. The Secretary-General expresses his particular appreciation to Maj-Gen. Cammaert, who has served as UNMEE's Force Commander with distinction for the past two years.
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