At the time I joined the previous missions they already existed. But when I joined UNMIS it was still being established, so I witnessed every single phase of this mission's development until it became one of the biggest missions in the world.

When I first arrived here, the mission headquarters was a rented building and the present location of the headquarters consisted of only two tents. The military then accounted for about 80 per cent of staff. At the beginning, we reduced the number of military observers from 750 to 625 and increased the number of command officers to 13. We later reduced the observers again from 625 to 525 and increased the military force from about 8,000 to 9,000 to bring the total number of forces to 9,978.

The management of military personnel is not an easy job, especially during the establishment of a new mission with a large number like this. When I joined the mission in 2006, there were no standing rules or instructions and we had to establish every thing from scratch. But the most difficult challenge was how to impose these instructions on military personnel who were already part of the mission and are from different cultures and traditions. Our work and efforts were appreciated by the UN headquarters in New York, and the staff responsible for the mission in New York has taken this system and promulgated it to peacekeeping missions all over the world.

It is the office that supervises and follows up on the managerial matters of all uniformed personnel from the time they join the mission force. It apprises them of their rights and duties and follows up on their transfers, leaves, finance and residence matters as well as any problems they might encounter until they conclude their tour of duty. This allows them to concentrate on their duties because there is somebody else taking care of their affairs.

We exerted great efforts for about four months. We made some changes in the organizational set-up of the office and assigned certain duties to each member of the office and divided the office into smaller specialized cells. We secured the approval of New York. The uniformed personnel also became aware of whom they could ask about matters concerning their own affairs.

In fact, it was not especially easy during the first year. But, when (staff members in New York) discovered that they had to listen to the field people and trust them, they cooperated with us and we attained the highest levels of coordination.