By Arul Louis United Nations, Aug 11 : Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Argentine Rear Admiral Guillermo Pablo Rios as the head of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) which is responsible with monitoring the fragile cease-fire in Kashmir.
The UN announced on Wednesday that Rios will succeed Major General Jose Eladio Alcain of Uruguay the helm of the 111-member organization located in both South Asian countries.
Rios was the Argentine Joint Staff’s General Director of Education, Training and Doctrine.
He has been a part of in two peacekeeping missions, UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) as well as the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in the Middle East and also supervised UN mining operations in Angola.
His vast experiences also include stints as Argentina’s Military Attache in Russia, Marines Infantry commander, and Education Department Chief of the Navy Warfare School.
The UNMOGIP began its operations in 1949 in order to oversee the cease-fire in Kashmir in response to the passage of a Security Council resolution the previous year.
While India permits UNMOGIP to conduct its business in the country in accordance with the Security Council mandate, it insists that the mission is ineffective due to the Shimla Agreement of 1972 between the late Premier Indira Gandhi and Pakistan’s then President Zulfikar Alibhutto, the Kashmir dispute is an issue that is bilateral with no need for third parties.
In 2014, India ordered the UNMOGIP to be taken out of the building of the government to which it was lent, and was moved to a commercially-leased facility.
The 111 Rios’s personnel under his command comprise 43 experts from the military from ten countries as well as 68 civilians.
(Arul Louis is reached via [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter at @arulouis.)
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