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Veteran Swedish peacekeeper to take over SLMM
Veteran Swedish military officer, Brigadier Ulf Henricsson, who commanded the Nordic division of the European peacekeeping mission in Bosnia during the Yugoslav war, will assume duties as the head of the 60-member Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) with effect from April 1.

Brigadier Henricsson joined the Swedish military as an officer in 1969, worked as general staff officer for six years before he was promoted as battalion commander. He worked with the Swedish tank programme for several years before being promoted as Brigade Commander in 1991.

During 1991-1994 he served as commanding officer of the Nordic Battle Group in Bosnia. He then served as commander of the Swedish Eastern Division until 1999, and later served two years as head of the European Commission military department in Sarajevo, the capital Bosnia-Hercogovina.

Since 2002, Brigadier Henricsson has been serving as the Head of the Department for leadership at the Swedish National Defence College.
Although a Swedish national has been named as the head of the SLMM, there will be no change in the composition of the truce monitoring body with the Norwegian contribution being the biggest.

At present, the SLMM consists of 16 members from Norway, 15 from Sweden, 12 from Denmark, 12 from Finland and five from Iceland. The monitoring mission operates in the Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts. In addition, it maintains contact points in Delft, Point Pedro, Muttur, Kilinochchi, Valachchenai and Akkaraipattu.

The SLMM’s sea monitoring teams are stationed in Jaffna and Trincomalee and they are kept on a stand by 24-hour service to join Navy patrols and conduct on-the-spot probes.

The SLMM also has an office in Kilinochchi to liaise with the LTTE while its headquarters is situated in Colombo. Brigadier Henricsson will be succeeding Brigadier Hagrup Haukland from Norway. Brigadier Haukland is leaving the SLMM after serving as Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2004 and as Head of Mission from 2005.

SLMM spokesperson Helen Maria Olafsdottir said Brig. Haukland’s decision to quit was his own as he felt he needed a change.

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