Biographical Note

LIEUTENANT GENERAL VICENTE DIAZ DE VILLEGAS OF SPAIN APPOINTED UNITED NATIONS

ORGANIZATION MISSION IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO FORCE COMMANDER

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to appoint Lieutenant General Vicente Diaz de Villegas of Spain as Force Commander for the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).  He will succeed Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye of Senegal, who has served as MONUC Force Commander since March 2005.  Lieutenant General Diaz de Villegas will be MONUC’s fourth Force Commander.

Lieutenant General Diaz de Villegas has had an extensive and distinguished military career since he joined the Spanish Army in 1966.  Since 2006, he has served as General Commander of Melilla.  From 2002 to 2005, he served as General Commander of the Galicia Airborne Brigade, prior to which he served as fourth Foreign Legion Regiment Commander and Malaga Regional Commander.

Lieutenant General Diaz de Villegas also served with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces as IFOR/SFOR Deputy Chief for Force Protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996-1997), and in Kosovo as Commander of the Spanish contingent and Deputy Commander of the KFOR Multinational Western Brigade (1999-2000).  In 2005, he led a NATO Response Force Brigade deployed in Pakistan to assist with humanitarian efforts in the wake of the earthquake that struck South Asia that year.

Lieutenant General Diaz de Villegas is a graduate of the General Staff College of the Spanish Army and the NATO Defense College.  Born in 1948, he is married and has four children.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record