Sergio Viera de Mello

CDF mourns peacemaker

 

By Pte John Wellfare
IN THE wake of the UN Headquarters bombing in Iraq, CDF Gen Peter Cosgrove spoke with sad affection for UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Gen Cosgrove, who had worked with Mr Vieira de Mello in East Timor, said the UN envoy was a friendly and charismatic leader.

“He was a charming and likeable man that you wanted to do things simply because he was Sergio,” he said.

“The world has lost one of its primary agents for peace.”

Mr Vieira de Mello arrived in Baghdad on June 2 on an assignment intended to last four months. His aim was to establish an Iraqi government with more than advisory status in the troubled nation.

A truck-bomb that wrecked the UN compound on August 19 killed 24 people and left 86 seriously injured.

Loaded with about 450kg of Iraqi military ordinance, the truck had parked in front of the UN Headquarters directly below Mr Vieira de Mello’s third floor office.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Armed Vanguards of the Second Mohammed Army, claimed responsibility a few days after the attack.

Investigators believed the group was probably made up of Saddam Hussein loyalists looking for soft targets that supported US occupation of Iraq.

The CDF said the terrorists responsible had brought the whole world against them.

“They’ve now attacked the very part of the world community which, without fear, favour or partiality was seeking to bring assistance to Iraqis.”

Gen Cosgrove expressed relief at the news that a senior Australian officer working directly for Mr Vieira de Mello had survived the attack.