Statement by the OPCW Director-General, H.E. Mr Rogelio Pfirter, on the Attack on the UN Headquarters in Baghdad
The Hague, 20 August 2003
Yesterday’s tragic death of our friends and colleagues working at the UN Headquarters in Baghdad fills all of us at the OPCW with shock and sadness. Sergio Vieira de Mello and his colleagues were working for the very organisation and people whose sole mission was and is to help the people of Iraq. We owe it to their memory to ensure that this attack does not undermine that mission.
The OPCW flag is flying at half-mast. The OPCW staff honoured the memory of our lost UN colleagues with a minute of silence.
Our deepest condolences on the untimely and tragic death in Baghdad of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as other colleagues go to their families and to all staff of the United Nations.
An outstanding Brazilian diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mello devoted most of his career to serving the international community with excellence, distinction and courage. He achieved success in seemingly impossible jobs and, not surprisingly, was chosen for the most difficult and delicate assignments, requiring his unique combination of wisdom and resolute action, political astuteness and decisiveness.
Rogelio Pfirter
Director-General