The body of H.E. Hédi Annabi, the Head of the UN Mission in Haiti (Minustah) and a former student of the Graduate Institute, was discovered on Saturday in the rubble of the Hotel Christopher, which houses the UN Mission in Port-au-Prince, days after a devastating earthquake hit the impoverished island of Haiti. At the time of the earthquake Mr. Annabi was with his Brazilian Deputy and the Canadian head of the UN police force in Haiti; all three perished in the quake. This sad news follows days of speculation about the whereabouts of Mr. Annabi who had not been seen since the disaster last Tuesday.
A Tunisian citizen, Hédi Annabi, 65, was a career diplomat. He studied International Relations at the Graduate Institute between the years of 1966 and 1967. Following his studies he joined the Tunisian Foreign Service where he served as Diplomatic Adviser to the Prime Minister before being appointed Chairman and General Manager of the National News Agency (Agence Tunis-Afrique-Presse) in 1979.
In 1981, Hédi Annabi joined the UN where he served first as Principal Officer in the Office of the Special Representative to the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in Southeast Asia. He later became Director of the Office and for the next ten years worked closely with the Secretary-General and his Special Representative to find a comprehensive and satisfactory outcome to the Cambodian problem. Following the 1991 signing of the Paris Peace Agreement in Cambodia, he was actively involved in the establishment and deployment of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).
In 1993, Mr. Annabi joined the UN Department of Peace-Keeping Operations (DPKO) where he served as Director of the Africa Division until 1996, before being designated as Officer-in-Charge of the DPKO Operations Office in June of that year. In 1997, he was appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.
In September 2007, Hédi Annabi was named Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti. During his 2-year plus tenure he worked tirelessly to improve conditions in one of the most impoverished nations in the Western Hemisphere and to draw attention to the desperate situation facing the population in a nation affected by soaring food prices, declining living standards and increasing civil unrest. In addition to these problems, Haiti is situated in a tropical storm belt. In 2008, the island was pounded by four tropical storms that resulted in the death of 800 people and caused US$ 1 billion worth of damage. Shortly afterwards, Hédi Annabi warned the international community that the nation’s economy and population were becoming almost entirely dependent on continuing humanitarian aid to provide basic services, including food. Commenting on the death of Hédi Annabi, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who arrived in Port-au-Prince on Sunday wrote: “I am greatly saddened to have to confirm the tragic death of my Special Representative in Haiti […]. Hédi Annabi was a real citizen of the world. The United Nations was his life […] he cared passionately for his mission and his staff.”
The disappearance of Hédi Annabi, a man known among his colleagues for his modesty and commitment, as well as the loss of his colleagues and large numbers of members of the Haitian population, is a huge tragedy. His death, along with those of his colleagues brings to 40 the number of confirmed losses among UN staff. A further 330 employees of the organisation are still unaccounted for.
The Graduate Institute extends its deepest sympathy to the family of Hédi Annabi as well as to those of his colleagues at this difficult time.