SECRETARY-GENERAL’S APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CYPRUS

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CYPRUS

The Secretary-General informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint Michael Møller ( Denmark) as his Special Representative for Cyprus and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Cyprus (UNFICYP).  He will replace Zbigniew Wlosowicz ( Poland) who will complete his assignment on 30 November 2005.

Mr. Møller was appointed Acting Deputy Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General in March 2005 and is concurrently the Director for Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, a position he has held since June 2001.

Mr. Møller began his career at the United Nations in 1979 with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where he served until 1984 in various positions as Programme Officer, Legal Officer, Assistant to the Director of the Division of International Protection, and Assistant Regional Representative.  Since then, Mr. Møller has served in a number of senior advisory positions in the United Nations Secretariat including, from 1997 to 2001, Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and, from 1995 to 1997, Senior Political Adviser to the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva.

Prior to that, from 1994 to 1995, he headed the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General.  He joined the Department for Political and Security Council Affairs in 1988 as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General in the Centre against Apartheid, and in 1992 served briefly as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General in the newly created Department of Political Affairs (DPA), before being appointed Deputy Director of the Americas Division of DPA.  From 1985 to 1987, he served as Inter-Agency Affairs Officer and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General in the Office for Secretariat Services for Economic and Social Matters.

Mr. Moller’s field assignments include Head of the United Nations Component in the Joint United Nations/Organization of American States International Civilian Mission to Haiti (MICIVIH) in 1993, Head of the Sub-Office for Southern Mexico in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 1987 to 1988, and Political Adviser to the United Nations Military Inspection Team in Iran in 1985.

Mr. Møller, 52, completed a Master’s course in International Relations at Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

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