Annan: Vieira de Mello’s greatest legacy could be democracy in Iraq

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL:  Slain UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello will be remembered for easing suffering in troublespots around the world, but his final legacy could be the restoration of democracy in Iraq, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday. Vieira de Mello, killed in a suicide bombing in Baghdad this week, didn’t finish his work but his dying wish was for the United Nations to remain in Iraq, Annan said at the start of a 24-hour memorial wake in the envoy’s native Rio. “Let us respect that,” Annan said at the memorial service attended by about 50 relatives and dignitaries in an ornate colonial-style palace. “Let Sergio, who has given his life in that cause, find a fitting memorial in a free and sovereign Iraq.” Vieira de Mello died on Tuesday in a suicide truck bombing attack at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. At least 22 other people were killed in the blast, and more than 100 were injured.

The 55-year-old rising star in the United Nations had the world body’s toughest job as envoy to Iraq, taking a leave of absence from his job as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to accept the four-month assignment in Baghdad at Annan’s request. “Sergio, my friend, you have entered that pantheon of fallen heroes that the United Nations wishes it did not have,” Annan said. “You will shine forever among our brightest stars.” For more than 30 years, Vieira de Mello worked to bring peace to the world’s most dangerous hotspots  including Mozambique, Cambodia, Bosnia and East Timor. His diplomatic skills were so admired that he had been talked about as a future secretary-general for the United Nations. Praising Vieira de Mello as a beloved son of Brazil and great servant of the UN, Annan said the Brazilian “was there to help them in their greatest hour of need.” “I believe the people of Iraq, too, will look back on him with gratitude,” Annan said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Vieira de Mello’s soul “will continue working for harmony, peace and solidarity. “I think he’s travelling to another place with other problems,” Silva said. The coffin bearing Vieira de Mello’s body departed Baghdad International Airport on Friday, draped with the light blue UN flag. After arriving on a Brazilian air force plane in Rio yesterday, military bands played Brazil’s national anthem as soldiers in white uniforms carried the casket covered with Brazil’s bright green, yellow and blue Brazilian flag. Both flags adorned the casket when it was brought into the Palacio da Cidade, where Vieira de Mello’s 86-year-old mother sobbed and embraced her son’s coffin. Vieira’s widow, Annie, wiped tears from her eyes as she was consoled and hugged by Annan and Silva. At the family’s request, the arrival ceremony and the wake were subdued.

Though Vieira has lived outside of Brazil since his early 20s and will be buried in the French town where his family lived, Annan said the envoy never lost his roots. Brazilians lamented the envoy’s death, saying South America’s largest country lost one of its most important international diplomats ever. “His death is a true sorrow,” said Elizabeth Cantalet, a 40-year-old Rio housewife. “He was a great representative of the United Nations; his cause was to defend human rights and he ended up paying for it with his own life.” Annan pledged that the UN will carry on the life’s work of Vieira de Mello and the UN staffers who were killed in Baghdad. “When we remember that they gave their lives for principle and peace and reconciliation, then we too can hold our heads a little higher,” Annan said.