SG/A/878
                                                                                                                        BIO/3578
                                                                                                                        15 JULY 2004

Biographical Note

Major-General Rajender Singh Appointed Force Commander of United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea

NEW YORK, 14 July (UN Headquarters) -- The Secretary-General has appointed Major-General Rajender Singh of India 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 19 July 2004.

Born on 1 December 1948, Major-General Singh was commissioned into “Kumaon” Regiment of the Infantry in 1969.  He served as commanding officer and staff officer in various capacities, and later as the Colonel, General Staff of an Infantry Division.

In 1995, he became the Director of Perspective Planning at Army Headquarters.  Later that year, he went to Angola, assuming one of the Regional Commands in the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) until June 1996.  From 1997, he was a Sector Commander in Counter Insurgency Operations in Manipur, before assuming the post of Deputy Director General for Military Operations in Army Headquarters in 2000.  In 2003, he took over the command of a Division deployed for counter-infiltration and counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Major-General Singh was educated at Birla Higher Secondary School, New Delhi.  He graduated from the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, in 1982 and the National Defence College, New Delhi, in 2000.  He is married with one son and one daughter.

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