VALE
Sergio Vieira de Mello
UN Human Rights Commissioner
UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian diplomat who joined the United Nations in 1969.

Sergio Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian diplomat who joined the United Nations in 1969.

He had been seconded to the position in Iraq from his job as the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner, and his history of service in many of the world’s most challenging locations saw him touted by some as a potential successor to Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General.

He worked in Lebanon, Africa and Kosovo and he served the UN in Cambodia and East Timor, where his close co-workers were Australians.

Indeed, among them in East Timor was the now Chief of the Aust­ralian Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove who met Vieira de Mello, who was then the Special Representitive to the Secretary General as part of the United Nations Transitional Admi­nistration - East Timor (UNTAET).

“The man had the most wonderful, charismatic leadership. He was such a charming and likeable man that you wanted to do things simply because he was Sergio.

I know that his home country will be in mourning. I know that New York will be in mourning, but more to the point, the world has lost one of its primary agents for peace - a very sad day and the murderous people who did this haven’t harmed the cause of peace but they’ve certainly caused all peaceful people to mourn today.”

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