Eumm Georgia observation mission will have a French general as deputy leader
(B2 - exclusive) The news should be made official quickly. It is a French gendarmerie general, in civilian clothes, General Gilles Janvier (*) who will take deputy command of the European observer mission (EUMM) in Georgia, alongside the experienced German diplomat, former ambassador to Moscow, Hansjörg Haber.
Gendarmerie officer, born in 1952 in Nice, Major General Gilles Janvier began his career in Rennes as head of the 2/8 mobile gendarmerie platoon, and in Berlin as head of the security detachment (in 1978).
He then served in several posts in France, in the mobile gendarmerie, the departmental gendarmerie (notably in Ille-et-Vilaine, from 1996 to 1999), or the general staffs. as commander of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur gendarmerie region (2005-2006). Deputy director at the General Secretariat of National Defense in 2003-2005, he was, in his last position, commander of gendarmerie schools since March 2007, before retiring.
At the international level, he carried out several missions: in former Yugoslavia (May-June 1995), in Albania (May-August 1997) as head of the WEU (Western European Union) mission and held several positions months as a security consultant in the United States (August-October 2006).
In Georgia, his essential task will be to ensure "operational" command of a team of around 200 observers, which could in fact include a number of soldiers or police officers, in civilian clothes.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
(*) Not to be confused with General Bernard Janvier (who was in particular commander of Forpronu in 1995 in Bosnia)
(Photo credit: National Gendarmerie)