Hany Abdel-Aziz (Egypt)
Special Representative of the Secretary-General
Mr. Abdel-Aziz has been the Director of Mission Support of the United Nations Mission in the Congo (MONUC) since February 2008. Prior to that appointment, he was Chief of Staff of the Joint UN/AU Mediation Support Team for Darfur (JMST), Chief Administration Officer of the United Nations Mission in Chad, Chief Administrative Services Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Beyrouth/Lebanon (ESCWA), Chief Publishing Service at UNOG, Chief Central Support Services at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Chief Administrative Officer in the United Nations Humanitarian Mission in Iraq (UNOCHI), of the UnitedNations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA), Head of Civil Affairs for Sarajevo (UNMIBH), and Senior Political Adviser and second in command of the UN political Office in Burundi, from 1993 to 1996.
Mr. Abdel-Aziz began his service with the United Nations as an Arabic interpreter at the United Nations Office in Geneva in 1981 following and International competitive examination, after serving for 15 years in the Egyptian Army, which he left in 1977 with the rank of Colonel.
Mr. Abdel-Aziz was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1946. He graduated from the Egyptian Military Academy in 1964 and received an advanced degree in Economics from the University of Cairo in 1975, an advanced degree in Languages Interpretation and Translation, and followed also studies in Management. Mr. Abdel-Aziz is fluent in Arabic, French and English. He has two daughters. And also hold with his family the nationality of his country of adoption, Switzerland.
Major General Zhao Jingmin (China)
Force Commander
On 27 August 2007 Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed Major General Zhao Jingmin of the People´s Republic of China as Force Commander in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
Since October 2003, General Zhao has held senior appointments in the Office of Peacekeeping Affairs of the Ministry of National Defence of the People´s Republic of China. From 2002-2003, he was a Senior Colonel at the National Defence University. From 1998-2001 he was Military Attaché in Tunisia.
General Zhao served in the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) as Chief Liaison Officer from April 1996 to April 1997 and in MINURSO as a United Nations Military Observer from September 1991 to June 1992.
General Zhao, since first of March 2009, is OIC MINURSO.
General Zhao was born in Shanxi, China, in 1954.
He holds degrees in Humanities from the Beijing Foreign Language Institute and the University of Dakar, Senegal. He obtained junior, intermediary and senior command level diplomas from the Infantry School of Shijiazhuang, the Shijiazhuang Military Academy and the People’s Liberation Army Academy of National Defence, respectively.
General Zhao is fluent in English and French. He is married and has one daughter.
Nader Darwich (Syria)
Chief of Mission Support
Darwich was born in 1956. In 1980, after graduating from Aleppo-Syria University with a degree in Economics, he joined the University as an Assistant Professor. In 1981 he attended Sofia University and in 1986 graduated with a Ph. D. in Accounting and joined the Syrian Ministry of Economy as Chief of the Finance Division. In 1992, Mr. Darwich joined the UN as a Senior Finance Assistant with UNDOF followed by UNMOT as Chief Finance Officer from 1995 to 1998, UNIKOM as Chief Finance Officer/Chief Budget Officer and Officer-in Charge of Administration from 1998 to 2003 and, after the mission liquidated, in 2004 joined UNAMI as Chief Finance Officer and, thereafter, as Chief Administrative Services from 2005 to 2007. Since January 2008 he has been MINURSO Chief of Mission Support.
Vacant
Senior Political Advisor
Vacant
Head of Liaison Office, Tindouf