US Features

OBITUARY: US envoy to Afghanistan, broker of Bosnian peace dies

By Mike McCarthy Dec 14, 2010, 12:44 GMT

Pakistan\'s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani (R) shakes hands with US special envoy for Pakistan-Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke as US secretary of state Hillary Clinton (C) looks on, during their meeting in Islamabad Pakistan on 18 July 2010. EPA/T. MUGHAL

   Washington - US President Barack Obama had been in office just days when he named Richard Holbrooke his top envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, sending the veteran diplomat to the central front in the war on terrorism.

   Holbrooke was tasked with managing the delicate relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, helping coordinate the war on terrorism within the region while strengthening civilian rule in both countries.

   But Holbrooke is likely best known as the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the Bosnian civil war after months of tireless 'shuttle diplomacy.'

   Holbrooke's decades of seasoned foreign policy experience came to an end Monday when the former ambassador died in Washington at the age of 69, three days after suffering a tear in the aorta, which carries blood directly from the heart and distributes it to the rest of the body.

   He was rushed Friday to George Washington University Hospital after collapsing during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He underwent 20 hours of surgery at the hospital, a few blocks from the State Department.

   Obama, in a statement after his death, called Holbrooke 'a true giant of American foreign policy who has made America stronger, safer and more respected.'

   'From his early days in Vietnam to his historic role bringing peace to the Balkans to his last mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard helped shape our history, manage our perilous present and secure our future,' Obama said.

   Obama said there were 'millions of people around the world whose lives have been saved and enriched by his work.'

   'The United States is safer and the world is more secure because of the half-century of patriotic service of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,' Obama said.

   As assistant secretary of state for Europe under former president Bill Clinton, Holbrooke's primary task was to facilitate NATO enlargement. But when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Holbrooke's heavy-handed diplomacy coupled with NATO airstrikes was able to bring an end to the bloody conflict between Serbs, Muslims and Croatians.

   He returned as a special envoy to the region in the late 1990s when fighting broke out between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. In March 1999, he flew to Belgrade to give a final ultimatum to his long-time nemesis, Serb president Slobodan Milosevic, that NATO bombing would commence if the aggression in Kosovo didn't end. Milosevic did not heed the warning.

   Holbrooke was born on April 24, 1941, in New York City and began his diplomatic career in 1962 with work during the early part of the Vietnam War. He served as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific under president Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s and ambassador to Germany from 1993 to 1994. He was also the US ambassador to the United Nations under Bill Clinton.

   The diplomat was regarded as a successful businessman, serving as the managing director of the Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers for eight years in the 1980s. There, he faced criticism for allegedly using diplomatic contacts to win clients, prompting the US Senate to scrutinize his nomination for the UN post before eventually giving it the green light.

   Holbrooke was known for an abrasive style and for being aggressive and egotistical, but it was those traits, many believed, that helped him hammer out the Bosnian peace deal. Hillary Rodham Clinton noted his ability to 'stare down dictators ... even under the most difficult circumstances.'

   In the hours before he died, Obama said Holbrooke was a fearsome opponent in the world of diplomacy.

   'As anyone who has ever worked with him knows or had the clear disadvantage of negotiating across the table from him, Richard is relentless,' the president said. 'He never stops. He never quits.'

   Holbrooke's recent role as Afghanistan-Pakistan envoy was also not free of road bumps. He was rumoured to not get along with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the former US military chief in the region, now retired general Stanley McChrystal.

   General David Petraeus, who replaced McChrystal after he was fired by Obama, was said to have a higher opinion of Holbrooke. Experts saw an important role for him in possible talks between Karzai and Taliban fighters.