Mideast situation/Lebanon – SecGen’s Personal Representative arrive in Lebanon – Press release

Beirut, 10 January 2001 (UN Information Center) – Mr. Staffan de Mistura, new Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon, will arrive to Lebanon at 15:00 p.m at 15:00 p.m Sunday 14 January 2001.

Mr. de Mistura will assume his new functions in replacement of Mr. Rolf Knutsson who was reassigned to Geneva as Executive Secretary of the UN Compensation Commission (Iraq).

On 7 December 2000, the Secretary-General of the United Nations appointed Mr. Staffan de Mistura (Sweden) as his Personal Representative for Southern Lebanon.  In this capacity, Mr. De Mistura will coordinate UN activities in southern Lebanon and undertake, on day-to-day basis, diplomatic and political liaison with the Lebanese Government on the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426 (1978).  

Mr. de Mistura will ensure that the UN support for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of southern Lebanon is consistent with the Organization’s overall political objectives in the area.

In these efforts, the Personal Representative will be reporting to and working in close cooperation with the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Mr. Terje Roed-Larsen.

Prior to his appointment in Beirut, Mr. de Mistura was Director of the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Rome and UN Representative to Italy, Malta, Holy Sea, San Marino, and UN Agencies in Rome.

In 1998, Mr. de Mistura was the Team Leader of the UN Secretary-General’s Technical Mission related to the issue of the presidential sites in Iraq. He was also a visiting professor at LUISS University of Rome in UN history and international negotiating techniques before he led the UN Special Mission sent by the Secretary-General to Kosovo.

In 1999, Mr. de Mistura became a member of the Security Council Panel on Humanitarian Issue in Iraq, and from April to June of the same year, he was the Special Advisor to the High Commissioner for Refugees on the Kosovo crisis before he was appointed as Regional Administrator of Mitrovica Region-Kosovo.

In June 2000, Mr. de Mistura was Special Rapporteur during the Fribourg Forum on the Regional Cooperation and Coordination in Crisis Management for Europe and the NIS.

Mr. de Mistura, who speaks Swedish, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic (colloquial), is married to Pascale de la Fregonière, and has two daughters: Alexandra (6 years) and Aurelia (4 years).

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