| |
A UN voice for peace silenced
By Mario Osava
 RIO DE
JANEIRO - He was a man accustomed to difficult and
dangerous situations, and that is part of why United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan laments his death
as a personal loss and one that will be felt deeply
throughout the UN system. (See Asia Times Online of July
22 'Honest broker' raises UN
profile in Iraq
)
Brazilian
Sergio Vieira de Mello, 55, died on Tuesday in Baghdad,
where he had served since May 27 as Annan's special
representative to aid in the rebuilding in Iraq. The
envoy was the victim of a bomb blast at the UN
headquarters in the Iraqi capital.
Vieira de
Mello held the post of UN Under Secretary General as
well as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
declared an official three-day mourning period when he
received confirmation in Brasilia of the UN official's
death, and described it as "the insanity of terrorism".
The president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, who was
meeting with Lula at the time, said that Vieira de
Mello's death is a "tragic sign of our times", as it is
increasingly more difficult to achieve peace than it is
to win wars.
Vieira de Mello was born in Rio de
Janeiro in 1948. He was not a Brazilian diplomat, but
rather an employee of the United Nations since 1969, the
year that he began work with the Office of the High
Commissioner for Refugees, based in Geneva.
Since that time he served in official missions
around the world, often in the middle of conflict. He
worked to help refugees - the displaced, victims of
ethnic, religious and political conflicts - in
Bangladesh, Sudan, Cyprus, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru,
Lebanon, Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo and
Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Lebanon, for example, he served
from 1981 to 1983, when that country was a battleground
and site of massacres in the context of the conflict
between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 1999 he
accepted a position that marked a major step in his
career within the UN system. He became the interim
administrator of East Timor during its transition period
to independence, achieved last year after four centuries
as a Portuguese colony and 26 years under iron-fisted
Indonesian rule.
Vieira de Mello's 33 years of
experience made him an ideal choice to take on the
thorny responsibility of representing the UN in the
reconstruction of Iraq, occupied by a US-led coalition.
On Sunday, the Brazilian agency Estado published
what was his last interview with his native country's
media. In the interview he described the occupation of
Iraq as "traumatic". "This must be one of the most
humiliating periods in the history of the Iraqi people.
I know I wouldn't want to see foreign tanks in
Copacabana [Rio de Janeiro's famous beach district]," he
said.
The envoy expressed hope that in 2004 it
would be possible to hold parliamentary elections in
Iraq in order to pave the way for a new government and
an end to the mandate of the occupying forces. "I think
I have experienced more dangerous situations. Here in
Baghdad I don't feel as much in danger as in other
places where I worked for the United Nations," Vieira de
Mello said in the interview, parts of which Estado did
not release until Tuesday.
When asked if he
thought the UN offices in Iraq could be a target for
terrorists he responded, "I don't think so. The UN is
highly respected by the local population. The Iraqis see
the UN as an independent organization, a friend, in
contrast to what they feel towards the occupying
forces."
The death of Vieira de Mello "is a loss
that cannot be compensated", said Brazil's Foreign
Minister Celso Amorim. "But he leaves us with the memory
of a man who fought for peace, for reconstruction,
always in the defense of human rights, the rights of
those who suffer most, and the rights of refugees."
His contribution to human rights "will not be
forgotten", said the watchdog group Amnesty
International in a statement on Tuesday.
Marcio
Thomaz Bastos, Brazil's justice minister, said that
Vieira de Mello is a "martyr for the cause of peace",
whose vocation was "the path of harmony, of overcoming
differences, and of tolerance".
(Inter Press
Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
