Portugal's former leader chosen for UN refugee post

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday chose Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, to become high commissioner for refugees, replacing Ruud Lubbers, who quit in February after being accused of sexual harassment.

Selected in a new process in which the UN has pledged to consult more widely for its officials and to publish a short list of finalists, Guterres beat out a field of seven other candidates. Among them were Bernard Kouchner, former French minister of health and founder of Doctors Without Borders; Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister; and Soren Jessen-Petersen of Denmark, the UN special representative in Kosovo.

Guterres, 56, will begin his three-year term on June 15 working out of the commission's Geneva offices and occupying one of the most influential positions at the UN. The agency has an annual budget of more than US$1 billion and staff members in 115 countries, and represents 17 million asylum seekers and refugees.

Lubbers, 65, a former Dutch prime minister, resigned the post on Feb. 20, denying the sexual harassment charges and saying he was being forced out by Annan because of "media pressure" over the accumulation of scandals at the UN. His term was to have lasted until the end of this year.

The announcement of Guterres' nomination said that in addition to his extensive political activities over a 30-year period, he had been involved in many nongovernmental organizations and was a founding member of the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991.

Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff, said that when the UN reached Guterres on Monday to tell him he had been chosen, he was at a meeting in the West Bank trying to facilitate dialogue with Israel.