A Polish general soon to head EUMM Georgia

(BRUSSELS2) The Polish general Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, aged 62, should take the head of the European observation mission (EUMM) in Georgia, according to our information, at the beginning of July. He will replace German Ambassador Hansjörg Haber, who has become EU Civilian Operations Commander at the European Diplomatic Service (CPCC).

This appointment must still be confirmed by the COPS, the Political and Security Committee, at the end of June. But it is quasi-official in Poland, where Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski has already officially welcomed this appointment.

His double curriculum, trained at the Polish school and at the school of the USSR (an obligation for officers of the former communist bloc) is an advantage in this region. It will perhaps allow him to find, on the "other side" of the line of demarcation, former classmates. His involvement in the Iraq war, alongside the Americans, like in NATO, or in Turkey, also gives him the necessary authority to impose on the Georgians, who are a little "impetuous" at times. His passage finally during five years in diplomacy, in the Balkans, makes it possible to soften this image of a career soldier.

A man of armor, trained at two schools

Born in 1949 in Ciechanów (a small town north of Warsaw), Tyszkiewicz is a career soldier trained both at the Polish Officers' School in Wrocław (1973) and at the Soviet school of the Mikhail Frunze Military Academy in Moscow (1979) and the USSR General Staff Academy (1990). He's also an armored man. He served first in the 8th Mechanized Division in Koszalin, in the 32nd and 1st Mechanized Regiment (1982-1986), then as Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander in the 1st Mechanized Division in Legionowo and as Commander of the 6th Airborne Brigade in Krakow (1987). And a staff man. He took over as director of operations (1990-92) and then head of training (1993-94). Promoted to major-general, he was appointed deputy commander of land forces in September 2002.

First Commander of the Poles in Iraq

Military attaché in Turkey (1995-1999), then Polish military representative to NATO, he was above all the first commander of the Polish contingent in Iraq, in the operation led by the Americans, and commander of the Center-South Multinational Division (2003-2004). In 2005, he was appointed Polish Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a position he held continuously until 2010.

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