WORD reaches Quidnunc that the assistant deputy Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Gen Johnny Vize, is off to the Middle East next month to assume command of the United Nations's UNIKOM mission on the Kuwait-Iraq border. He will be the only Irish officer in charge of a UN mission. Gen Jim Sreenan remains as acting commander of UNIFIL in Lebanon, until a Ghanaian officer is appointed and then, it is suggested, he could be the next chief of staff when Lieut Gen Dave Stapleton retires next summer.
Vize will be promoted from Brigadier General to Major General before he flies out to Kuwait for a two-year tour of duty. The Kuwait mission has had its problems, with 13 observers killed since it was set up after the Gulf War, but it has stabilised in the past few years. Vize will command some 1,100 observers, including six Irish officers.
