General William Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations Selected for United Nations Fact-Finding Mission in Jenin

April 25, 2002 – At the request of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Major General William L. Nash (U.S. Army, Ret.) has joined the U.N. fact-finding team to develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp. Nash is Director of the Council’s Center for Preventive Action, which seeks ways to prevent ethnic and civil conflicts from escalating into deadly violence.

Nash departed yesterday for Geneva, where the full team and support staff are gathering to prepare for their mission. The team, headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, is expected to arrive in Israel by the end of the week. The length of the mission is as yet undetermined. The results of the team’s work will be given to Secretary General Annan, who will then brief the Security Council.

Nash is one of the few Americans who has led both military and civilian peacekeeping operations. In 1995, he commanded Task Force Eagle, a multi-national division of 25,000 soldiers from 12 nations charged with enforcing the military provisions of the Dayton peace agreement in northeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 2000, after his retirement from military service, he was the U.N.’s Regional Administrator for northern Kosovo. Nash is a veteran of Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Since April 2001, Nash has been the Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Contact: Lisa Shields, Director of Communications, 212-434-9888