Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World

Author: 
Power, Samantha
Publisher: 
London, UK: Penguin, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-02081-5, pp. 622
Reviewed by or other comment: 

Lone, Haleem

Sergio Vieira de Mello joined the UN in 1969 at the young age of 21, and after 34 years of service with the UN - almost all with UNHCR - was tragically killed in the bombing of the UN base in Baghdad in 2003, together with 21 other people. He was one of the stars and high flyers in the UN - finally occupying the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. But his passion was for his many high-profile short-term humanitarian and political field assignments in Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia, the Great Lakes region in Africa, and as Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Iraq. He excelled in these roles, and it was in these that he won his reputation as a highly gifted, courageous, committed, unconventional UN staffer, bringing an original approach to crisis situations and willing to go out on a limb to achieve solutions, for refugees and later for bitterly divided nations. His trademark was to apply UN impartiality rigorously, not making judgements, and, for example, seeking out and involving the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or continuing to engage in dialogue with the Serbs even as evidence of their killings mounted. This was, in Power's words, an example of his 'ruthless pragmatism' (p. 9) in pursuit of results on the ground for the weak and vulnerable.

De Mello was known for his personal courage and for taking risks so as to get close to the people whom the UN was supposed to assist, and to see for himself unfiltered reality on the ground. Instances of his personal courage are littered throughout the book: see the account of De Mello's journey into Khmer Rouge territory (pp. 102 et seq.) and his risk taking in Bosnia (pp. 149-50).

His career coincided with great changes in the UN, as the UN evolved to take on roles of peacekeeping and political administration in a world riven with civil wars, conflicts, and terrorism. The UN has suffered from its hugely visible failures in the 1990s in Lebanon, Somalia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. De Mello remained committed to the institution, despite witnessing at close hand (and in some case being part of) its failures. His own personal record of achievement was inevitably a mixed one - with considerable achievements on the ground, including the resettlement of 360,000 refugees in Cambodia, and the landmark 1994 'blue routes agreement' in Sarajevo (p. 157), which he considered his greatest achievement. At the same time, Powers notes that de Mello's specific successes did not result in lasting achievements: his work with the Khmer Rouge, to cite just one example, did not prevent them from reneging on agreements and unleashing further violence. It is one of the many virtues of Power's book that she is consistently objective about de Mello's qualities and achievements, as well as his failings and failures. Some saw him as over-ambitious and opportunist at times: for example, in his refusal as High Commissioner for Human Rights to criticise US abuses in Iraq (p. 373) - arguably in order not to jeopardise his chances at the job of the UN Secretary General.

In tracking de Mello's career, the book follows the changing role and fortunes of the UN - the challenges and failures of peacekeeping, the more successful expanded role in humanitarian interventions, and the UN role after the rise of terrorism - with the suicide bombing in Beirut in 1983, killing 214 American and 58 French soldiers, being a harbinger of things to come. While much of this will be familiar in broad themes to the well-informed public, it is in capturing the detail and de Mello's personal role that the book is especially valuable. It shows the personal qualities, dedication, and contribution of UN staff at their best. It also vividly shows, however, the failings of the top UN leadership, which in accepting the role assigned to it by the Security Council too often condemned the staff in the field to assuming roles and tasks for which there was insufficient political and financial support; and which took on responsibilities for which the UN lacked the capacities - the huge and not properly planned increase in the size of UNHCR and DPKO, and the lack of expertise in East Timor, are examples. Power cites many other instances of this UN unpreparedness and amateurism - for example, in Cambodia, none of the expected 3600 police arrived before the refugees returned, and almost none of them spoke English or French, the two official UNTAC languages. Another critical UN failing that Power vividly demonstrates is the political nature of senior appointments, resulting in the fact that 'the UN could never be confused with a meritocracy' (p. 220).

Power's book takes the reader through de Mello's long career and shows how dedicated he was to his UN job - with family clearly taking second (or even third) place behind the UN and other relationships. He never worked outside the UN. With his personal flamboyance, and his liking of the good life and romantic entanglements intertwined with his job, de Mello belonged to an earlier UN era (see p. 79, for example). The UN was de Mello's life - 'I am not a Latin American, I am not Brazilian', he said early in his career (p. 56). He was committed to the ideals and practice of the UN, and he tried throughout his career to make the UN more relevant and effective. There is an underlying sadness in this book, exemplifying the constraints and difficulties that the UN faces, which limited de Mello's achievements, and which also resulted in his tragic death in Iraq. For the general reader, this book - at 622 pages - is too long, and many readers are likely to focus, out of all the countries where De Mello served, on those of most interest to them.

The strong criticisms of the UN by Prince Sihanouk in Cambodia, by Guzman in East Timor (who referred to the UN presence as 'the second occupation'), and President Kagame in Rwanda ('These are people who want to be judges, and nobody can judge them', p. 217) are evidence of the challenges facing the UN. In showing the UN in action on the ground in vivid and dramatic detail, and in maintaining an even-handed objectivity, Power's book repeatedly illustrates the concrete and significant UN achievements on the one hand and, on the other, its shortcomings and failures in often almost impossible situations. In doing this, the book makes a serious contribution to the debate about the evolving role of the UN in the twenty-first century.