Lamberto Zannier
UNMIK Chief
(AFP - 26/06/08; UN News Centre -- 24/06/08 - 26/06/08; Xinhua - 21/06/08; AFP - 20/06/08; AKI - 18/06/08; UNMIK; NATO; Government of Italy) |
Veteran Italian diplomat Lamberto Zannier took office as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's new Special Representative and head of UNMIK on June 20th 2008. He succeeded Germany's Joachim Ruecker, becoming the seventh chief of UNMIK since the mission was established in 1999.
Born on June 15th 1954, in the municipality of Fagagna in northeastern Italy, Zannier holds a PhD in law from the Trieste University.
He worked for the FAO Legal Office in Rome from 1976 until 1978, when he joined the Italian Foreign Ministry. As a career diplomat, Zannier has served in the Italian embassies to the United Arab Emirates, Austria and the Netherlands.
In 1991, the Italian government seconded him to NATO as head of the Disarmament, Arms Control and Co-operative Security Section. He served in that post until 1997.
Zannier chaired the negotiation on the adaptation of the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe from summer 1998 until the signature of the Agreement by OSCE heads of state and government at the Istanbul summit of November 1999.
From 2000 to 2002, he served as Italy's permanent representative in The Hague-based Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, dealing also with issues of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
In 2002, Zannier joined the OSCE as director of the Vienna-based organisation's Conflict Prevention Centre. He served in that post until 2006. His responsibilities included overseeing the operation of the OSCE's seven civilian field missions in the Balkans and a dozen others in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus region and Central Asia.
Prior to his appointment as UNMIK chief, Zannier worked for the Italian Foreign Ministry, dealing with policy and operational aspects of the country's participation in European Security and Defense Policy.
He assumed his place in UNMIK five days after the country adopted its constitution on June 15th 2008, some four months following its unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia on February 17th.
Zannier arrived in Pristina days after Ban proposed a plan to reconfigure UNMIK's activities in line with the new situation in Kosovo and to allow the launch of a nearly 2,000-strong EU-led rule of law mission.
"I see this as a moment of transition," Zannier told a news conference following his arrival in Pristina. "There are a number of things to be readjusted. It is not only UNMIK reconfiguring, but it is the whole set of activities that UNMIK was handling that needs to be reviewed."
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu several days later, he said that the conditions were ripe for him to start moving towards implementation of Ban's plan, likely to be completed at the end of October 2008.
Zannier is fluent in Italian, English and French and has working knowledge of Spanish and German.
He is married and has two sons and two daughters.