Jeremaia Waqanisau - Military Career

Military Career

Waqanisau left banking and joined the Army in 1976. His first senior appointment, from November 1984 to April 1986, was as Commanding Officer in the Fiji Battalion with UNIFIL peacekeeping troops in Lebanon. In November 1986 he was promoted to Senior Operations Planning Officer with UNIFIL. He held this post until May 1987, when he was transferred to the Sinai, in Egypt, serving till June 1988.

From August to October 1988, he was the Commanding Officer of the Army Training Group in Fiji. In November that year he was appointed Colonel Adjutant and Quarter-Master General in the Fiji Headquarters, and held this position till January 1991. In February, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and appointed UNIFIL Chief of Staff. He remained in this position until March 1992. In April 1994, he became Deputy Force Commander of UNIFIL; from February through May 1995, he acted as Force Commander. His last major posting was as Colonel Adjutant and Quarter-Master General in the Fiji Headquarters, from July 1995 through December 1996.

During his military career, Waqanisau also had two assignments as an attachment adviser. The first, in 1990, was as Military Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister's delegation to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. The second, in 1991, was as Adviser to the Ministry of Home Affairs, concerning the review of Fiji's cooperative defence relationship with other Pacific countries.

Waqanisau's first diplomatic postings also came during his military service. From July 1992 to April 1994, he was posted as Counsellor to the Fiji Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mission in New York City. In May 1993 he was Chargé d'Affaires to the UN Mission and then in December of the same year he held the same position at the Fijian Embassy in Washington, D.C. In 1994, the Department of Peacekeeping appointed him as Military Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General's Peace Envoy to Afghanistan.