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Updated March 5th, 2020 at 17:12 IST

Former UN chief Javier Perez de Cuellar passes away at the age of 100

Former UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, who brokered a historic ceasefire between Iran and Iraq in 1988 died on March 4 at the age of 100.

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
UN
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Former UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, who brokered a historic ceasefire between Iran and Iraq in 1988 died on March 4 at the age of 100. His son, Francisco Perez de Cuellar reportedly said that his father died at home in Peru of natural causes. 

Perez was born in Lima in 1920 and he served as the UN's fifth secretary-general between 1982 and 1991. He had a long diplomatic career that brought him full circle from his first posting as the secretary at the Peruvian embassy in Paris in 1944 to a later job as Peru's ambassador to France. He was also the Peruvian Prime Minister and was the one who came out of retirement to help re-establish democracy in Peru. 

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra in a tweet said that Perez was “an outstanding Peruvian, a full-bodied democrat, who dedicated his life and work to making our country great”. 

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Perez also served in embassies across Europe and Latin America and at the UN he presided over the influential Security Council and as a special representative, he brokered a peace deal between Greece and Turkey as well. He had also helped to end hostilities in Western Sahara, and civil wars in El Salvador, Cambodia and Nicaragua. He has also received honorary doctorates from nearly 40 universities around the world. 

'Profoundly saddened'

UN Secretary-General Guterres, in a statement, said that he was 'profoundly saddened' by the news. Guterres said, “His tenure as Secretary-General coincided with two distinct eras in international affairs: first, some of the iciest years of the Cold War, and then, with the ideological confrontation at an end, a time when the United Nations began to play more fully the role envisaged by the founders”. 

He further added, “Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar played a crucial role in a number of diplomatic successes — including the independence of Namibia, an end to the Iran-Iraq War, the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, the peace accord in Cambodia and, in his very last days in office, a historic peace agreement in El Salvador”. 

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Several other UN officials along with UN Sri Lanka also paid their condolences. 

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Published March 5th, 2020 at 17:12 IST

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