Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed by a suicide car bomb in Baghdad on Tuesday, became first known to Malaysians when he headed the United Nations administration in East Timor three years ago. MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR, who was assigned to report on the birth of the new nation then, recalls this consummate international civil servant.
THE call came from Beijing one April afternoon. The message from Sergio Vieira de Mello was: “I will be in Kuala Lumpur next week and I would like to meet you again.”