June 19, 2007 -- Major General Indar J. Rikhye, 86, a senior research fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Global Policy Research and a pioneer in international peace keeping operations and training, died May 21 at the U.Va. Hospital. He had respiratory failure, according to his son Bhalinder Rikhye.

Maj. Gen. Rikhye was born in 1920 in Lahore, now a city in Pakistan, the son of a former medical officer in the British Indian Army. He graduated from the Indian Military Academy in 1939 and was commissioned by King George VI to serve in the sixth Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers, known as the Bengal Lancers. In 1957 he was assigned to command India’s troops in the Sinai and Gaza as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force there. He became chief of staff for the United Nations’ Emergency Force in 1958 and later its acting force commander. Two years later he was appointed military adviser to the U.N. Secretary-Generals Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant. After his retirement from military service, Rikhye founded the International Peace Academy, where he served as president for 20 years.