Working with Iraqi people top priority for UN mission, Annan and envoy say
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his newly appointed Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, both
stressed today that the top priority for the United Nations in the war-shattered country would be to work with the Iraqi
people in establishing a sovereign state with full respect for human rights.
Mr. Annan said Mr. Vieira de Mello, who will be taking a four-month leave of absence from his current post as UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights to serve in Iraq, was ideally suited to carry out the functions ascribed to the Special
Representative by the Security Council resolution on the UN's role in the country's reconstruction adopted last week.
"The Council has called on the United Nations to assist the Iraqi people, in coordination with the Authority, in a wide
range of areas, including humanitarian relief, reconstruction, infrastructure rehabilitation, legal and judicial
reforms, human rights and return of refugees, and also to assist with civilian police," Mr. Annan told a news conference
at which he introduced Mr. Vieira de Mello as his envoy.
Mr. Annan said it had been difficult for him to take Mr. Vieira de Mello away from his human rights job, even on a
temporary basis, "particularly as human rights has been on top of my own agenda and it is absolutely important to this
organization.
"It was not an easy decision but it also reflects the important challenge that we need to take on," he added.
In his own comments to the press, Mr. Vieira de Mello also stressed human rights and Iraqi sovereignty. "The people of
Iraq, as we know only too well, have suffered and have suffered enough. It is time that we all - the Iraqis first, the
coalition authority and the United Nations - come together to ensure that this suffering comes to an end and that the
Iraqi people take their destiny into their own hands as the Security Council resolution calls for as quickly as
possible," he said.
"I consider the development of a culture of human rights in Iraq as fundamental to stability and to peace in that
country," he added. Respect for human rights "is the only solid foundation for durable peace and for development," he
said, and he especially stressed women's rights and "their full participation in the consultative processes, not least
the political one, that lie ahead."
Mr. Vieira de Mello, a 55-year-old Brazilian who has spent 30 years at the UN working in some of the most sensitive
post-conflict spots like Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and East Timor, "has an exceptional and unique experience
in running these operations and is also known as a good team builder and a consensus-builder," the Secretary-General
said.
"I think he is someone who will hit the ground running," he added.
Replying to questions, Mr. Vieira de Mello said he planned to arrive in Baghdad by next Monday and his first priority
would be to make contact with Iraqi society, representatives of the media, of civil society. "There are many Iraqi
societies which in their richness have been suppressed brutally for the last 24 years. But they are there, they are
there or are returning as we speak and they are my priority," he added.
He said his second priority would be to establish good working relations with the United States-run provisional
governing Authority there. His third would be to visit all the provinces "because Iraq is not limited to Baghdad and I
think it is important that I pay attention to what Iraqis in all regions and provinces actually feel and aspire in terms
of their future," he said.