Amidst criticisms against the United Nations, one man stands out like a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a pity, however, that his diplomatic prowess and leadership has been suddenly cut short when a suicide bomber managed to infiltrate the UN office in Baghdad in 2003.
By time of his tragic death on Aug. 19, 2003, the Sergio Vieira de Mello Brazilian diplomat had spent nearly 35 years inside the U.N. system, sent from hellhole to hellhole as one of the international organization's most dependable troubleshooters. Representing the United Nations in Iraq, a job he reluctantly accepted at the behest of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan and George W. Bush's administration, was to be his final assignment in the field. He was, as biographer Samantha Power put it Monday at a Washington event previewing Sergio, the moving documentary based on her book, the world's "go-to guy."
The film, which airs May 6 -- on HBO, of all places -- is both a celebration of Vieira de Mello's life and a gripping account of his final moments, trapped beneath the rubble of the Baghdad hotel that served as the United Nations' headquarters in Iraq.
By time of his tragic death on Aug. 19, 2003, the Sergio Vieira de Mello Brazilian diplomat had spent nearly 35 years inside the U.N. system, sent from hellhole to hellhole as one of the international organization's most dependable troubleshooters. Representing the United Nations in Iraq, a job he reluctantly accepted at the behest of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan and George W. Bush's administration, was to be his final assignment in the field. He was, as biographer Samantha Power put it Monday at a Washington event previewing Sergio, the moving documentary based on her book, the world's "go-to guy."
The film, which airs May 6 -- on HBO, of all places -- is both a celebration of Vieira de Mello's life and a gripping account of his final moments, trapped beneath the rubble of the Baghdad hotel that served as the United Nations' headquarters in Iraq.
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