Yves De Kermabon

Commander of KFOR

(KFOR Web Site; International Herald Tribune - 02/09/04; AFP, Canadian Press - 01/09/04)

French Lieutenant General Yves de Kermabon assumed command of KFOR on 1 September 2004, replacing German Army Lieutenant General Holger Kammerhoff. He became the 9th commander of KFOR since its deployment in Kosovo in June 1999.

De Kermabon was born on 4 November 1948. He entered the French Military Academy of Saint-Cyr in 1970 and chose to serve in the Armour and Cavalry branch.

During his career, de Kermabon has held posts of increasing responsibility. As a cavalry officer, he served at levels of command from platoon leader to regiment commander. He has held a number of staff positions, including aide to the army inspector general (1984-87), deputy of the army section in the military cabinet of the minister of defence (1989-91), chief of staff of the 6th Light Armour Division (1994-97), and chief of the cabinet of the general director of the army personnel directorate (1997-98).

De Kermabon has also completed assignments outside France, including in Africa in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. In the early 1990s he was commander of the French battalion within the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia.

He was first posted to the Balkans in January 1995, serving for several months as deputy commander of the Sarajevo Sector within UNPROFOR. He returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 1995 for a second several-month assignment as chief of staff of IFOR's Multinational Division South East.

From May to September 2002, de Kermabon served a tour of duty in Kosovo as commanding general of the KFOR multinational brigade in Mitrovica. He was back in Kosovo in March 2003 for a new, six-month assignment as deputy commander of KFOR.

Speaking at the ceremony marking the change of command on 1 September 2004, de Kermabon pledged to boost the capabilities of the peacekeeping force. "The situation has remained fragile, so it is undoubtedly necessary to change the way the force acts, to be more mobile, more reactive and to improve intelligence," he said.

De Kermabon is married and has five children.