Global Policy Forum

By Felicity Barringer

Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a longtime United Nations executive who made his reputation in recent years helping repair the havoc caused by the world's nastiest regional conflicts, is Secretary General Kofi Annan's choice as the United Nations special representative in Iraq. Mr. Annan informed the Security Council of his choice in a letter that was released to reporters this afternoon.

Mr. Vieira de Mello's current post, the high commissioner for human rights, will remain vacant during the four months he will be in Baghdad, according to a letter from Mr. Annan to the General Assembly. His deputy, Bertrand Ramcharan, will assume his duties on an acting basis. Mr. Vieira de Mello's administrative and diplomatic skills were most recently on display in East Timor, where, as a United Nations special representative with an unusually broad mandate to run the country, he successfully built political and civic institutions out of the chaos of ethnic and political warfare. A Brazilian with two doctorates from the Sorbonne, he is an expert on, among other things, the repatriation of refugees and the reconciliation of warring political factions. He is expected to work closely with President Bush's new civilian administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III.

His appointment, however, created some consternation among human rights groups. "We are concerned that this appointment sends a signal to the world community that human rights are being downgraded rather than accorded the prominence we believe they deserve," said William F. Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International USA. Mr. Vieira de Mello, who met President Bush in March during a visit in Washington with the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, had been the Bush administration's first choice for the job. Another possible candidate, Lakhdar Brahimi, currently the United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan, made it clear he had no interest in the Iraqi post, diplomats here said this week.

The special representative's post was created in the resolution lifting the sanctions on Iraq and establishing an international legal basis for the broad control of the country by the United States and Britain. The Security Council approved the resolution by a 14-to-0 vote on Thursday, and the Syrian envoy, who was absent, has since said his government also approves of the measure. Mr. Vieira de Mello is expected to leave shortly for Baghdad. Peter W. Galbraith, a professor of national security strategy at the National War College in Washington who worked with Mr. Vieira de Mello in Serbia and East Timor, said: "He's not going to have any line responsibility. So he's going to have to focus on those things where he has a comparative advantage."

Mr. Galbraith added, "He can be really helpful to the political process because he is so good at forging consensus and bringing people to agreement." Among the other tasks given to the special representative are coordinating aid and reconstruction assistance offered by United Nations and nongovernmental agencies and promoting the return of displaced persons and the protection of human rights.

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