Ex-UN chief Perez de Cuellar dead at 100
FORMER UN chief Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was known for his peace-making ef f or t s including brokering a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war, died on Wednesday in his native Peru, aged 100, his son said
Perez de Cuellar served as UN secretary-general from 1981 to 1991 when he was often described as a “pacifist by vocation and nature”.
Lauded by his countrymen as one of the most illustrious Peruvians of his era, Perez de Cuellar led the UN through a period marked by the fight against world hunger, the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, as well as the civil war in US-supported El Salvador which led to UN-mediated peace talks.
“My dad died after a complicated week. He died at 8:09pm tonight (0109 GMT Thursday) and is resting in peace,” his son Francisco Perez de Cuellar told RPP radio.
Perez de Cuellar was known for his efforts to reconcile warring parties.
He considered the 1990 independence of Namibia, one of the last colonial enclaves on the African continent, his greatest accomplishment as secretary-general.
Perez de Cuellar’s popularity prompted him to accept the presidential nomination from one of Peru’s leading political parties – the Union for Peru – in 1995, which pi t t e d him a g a i n s t t h e n - i n - c u m - b e n t pre s i - d e n t Alber- to Fujimori.
The unifying force behind the Union for Peru, Perez de Cuellar won only 21.8 per cent of the vote, coming in second behind Fujimori who got 64.4 per cent.
In 1997, informants revealed that Perez de Cuellar had been subject to systematic surveillance and phone tapping during the campaign, ordered by the head of Fujimori’s intelligence services, Vladimiro Montesinos.
Following the collapse of the Fujimori regime in November 2000, Perez de Cuellar was appointed head of a government of “unity and national reconciliation.”
As prime minister, he helped expose a web of corruption woven by Montesinos over the course of Fujimori’s 10-year rule. After the election of President Alejandro Toledo in 2001, Perez de Cuellar was appointed ambassador to France.
Born into an upper-middleclass family in Lima and educated in Catholic schools, Perez de Cuellar spent most of his professional life outside his homeland, in diplomatic posts in Britain, Bolivia, Poland, the former Soviet Union, Switzerland and Venezuela.
He was preside president of the UN Security Council from 1973 to 1974 and was UN permanent representative in Cyprus from 1975 to 1977.
The career dip diplomat’s son and daughter are from his first marriage, along w with six grandchildren. He and his second wife, Marcela Tem Temple, had no children.
A lawyer by edu education, Perez de Cuellar received receiv honorary doctorates from n nearly 40 universities around t the world.
A nt o n i o Gut e r r e s , w h o c u r r e nt l y he a d s t he UN, wished him hi m “w “wit h pr ide & joy” a happy 100t h bir t hday on Ja nua r y 19.
P Perez de Cuellar’ lar’s remains will lie at the Peruv i a n f ore i g n m ministry before bu burial on Frid day, his son sa said.