Dismay, even distaste, will greet today’s revelation that humankind has discovered a long-lost close relative: the worm. He took obvious precautions, but he told a Brazilian interviewer a few weeks before he died that, as God was Brazilian, he was sure that he would always protect him.Colin Harding. Although he set out to establish good relations with all sides, and tried to persuade them all to become involved in the reconstruction of their country, Vieira de Mello was well aware that his life was in constant danger in Iraq. Isn’t that what philosophy is about?”By common consent, Vieira de Mello made such a brilliant success of his role in East Timor that Kofi Annan hardly allowed him time to settle back into his Geneva office before offering him the Iraq posting. He liked to claim that his philosophical studies had prepared him well for his role in life: “Our work is to promote understanding, tolerance, peace and security. “The important thing is that we should be open to dialogue with all elements in a society, even with the forces of evil, and by means of this dialogue we can become a sort of bridge or link,” he said.

He was also a passionate advocate of the UN’s role as an independent intermediary and honest broker in conflict situations. His great strengths were his unrivalled experience in handling impossibly difficult situations, on the one hand, and his personal charm and warmth on the other.Vieira de Mello was considerably more than a safe pair of hands. He is said to have turned the offer down twice, but finally agreed, on condition that it was a short-term secondment from his UN human rights job. He did not speak Arabic and was not particularly knowledgeable about Middle Eastern affairs.

After a spell as UN special envoy in Kosovo in 1999, he was sent to East Timor later that year to run the transitional administration that took the country to free elections and full independence from Indonesia in 2002.Vieira de Mello was not, on the face of it, the obvious choice for the Iraq job. In 1986, Vieira de Mello was appointed chef de cabinet of the High Commissioner for Refugees, and in 1996 he became Assistant High Commissioner.Two years later, Annan summoned him to New York to become Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs. He took part in missions to Bangladesh, Sudan, Cyprus, Mozambique and, between 1981 and 1983, he was the regional representative in Latin America of the UNHCR.He acquired a wide range of experience in the course of his travels, serving in Cambodia as head of the international mine-clearing programme, and in Lebanon as senior political adviser to the UN Interim Force. His first job was at the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) headquarters in Geneva.Over the next three decades, S?io Vieira de Mello was present at most of the world’s trouble spots, helping to rebuild societies torn apart by war and civil conflict. He was educated mainly at the French school in Rio and at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied Philosophy.He considered a diplomatic career, but after his father was dismissed from the Brazilian foreign service in 1969 by the military government of the day, S?io refused to sit the entrance examination to the celebrated Rio Branco diplomatic academy in Rio Instead, he joined the United Nations, at the age of 21. That made him a carioca (an inhabitant of Rio) by birth, but his family left Brazil for a foreign posting when he was just three weeks old. Less than a year ago, Annan had appointed him UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in succession to Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson.