Rene de Labarrière

Rene de Labarrière (1899 - 1948) is an officer of the French Army, considered as the first soldier of UNO died on mission.

Wire of soldier, born with Saint-Céré in the department of the Batch, he is volunteer at 18 years during the First World War. He follows then the school of the officers of the Army of Saint-Cyr military school and continues a career in Algeria primarily, in Lebanon and in Syria then under French control. In 1939, at the beginning of the second world war, it turns over to France to the head of a company of riflemen. Wounded, it is made prisoner by the Germans. Released in 1945, it is affected in June 1948 with the first mission of UNO, just created. It is sent with an about sixty other soldiers of various nationalities like military observer within the ONUST, Organisme of the Nations Plain in charge of the Monitoring of the Truce in the conflict between Jews and Arabic in Palestine. It is killed on July 6th under conditions still badly cleared up (explosion of a grenade or an anti-personnel mine), undoubtedly following a mistake, during the crossing of a barricade of the Jewish forces in a village close to Nazareth.

The October 6th 1998, at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the operations of maintenance of peace, Kofi Annan honoured officially her memory with the seat with UNO in New York while giving to him, on a purely posthumous basis, a new distinction of the United Nations, the medal Dag Hammarskjöld.

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