JAMES HOLGER NAMED ACTING SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF SECRETARY-GENERAL AND CHIEF OF MISSION OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN CYPRUS

Press Release
SG/A/706
PKO/83

JAMES HOLGER NAMED ACTING SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF SECRETARY-GENERAL AND CHIEF OF MISSION OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN CYPRUS

The Secretary-General announced the appointment of James Holger of Chile as Acting Special Representative and Chief of Mission of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), following the resignation for family reasons of Ann Hercus.

Mr. Holger is Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy in Santiago, Chile. From 1992 to 1997, he was Chilean Ambassador to the Russian Federation, serving concurrently as Ambassador to Belarus, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. From 1990 to 1992 he was Deputy Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations, and served concurrently as Chile’s Ambassador to Cyprus.

From 1988 to 1990, Mr. Holger was Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Washington, D.C.

From 1982 to 1988 he served first as Deputy to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, and later for four years as Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General in that country.

From 1981 to 1982 he served in the Office of the Under-Secretaries-General for Special Political Affairs at United Nations Headquarters, and from 1978 to 1981 he was the Senior Political Adviser to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). From 1977 to 1978 he was Executive Assistant to the Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo.

Prior to joining the United Nations, from 1954 to 1972, Mr. Holger held the posts of Chief of Cabinet to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Director of the Political Affairs Department, Director of the Policy Planning Division and Director of Foreign Affairs of Chile. He also served with the Chilean delegation to the Organization of American States (1958-1960), the Chilean Embassy in Washington, D.C. (1960-1964), Moscow (1965-1968), Bonn (1968-1970), and Berlin (1971), and the Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations (1972-1977).

Mr. Holger was born in Washington, D.C. and attended elementary and secondary schools in Chile and the United States. He attended the Faculty of Law of the Chilean State University, the Institute of Political Studies of the University of Paris, and obtained a Master’s degree at the school of International Affairs and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University.

Mr. Holger is married and has one son.

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