Annan Surprises With Choices for 2 U.N. Posts

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday nominated two surprise candidates to fill a pair of the U.N.’s highest-profile posts.

Annan nominated former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers to be high commissioner for refugees, and named Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, a longtime official with the world body, to head the U.N. Population Fund, which would make her the first Saudi woman to hold a top U.N. post. The General Assembly is expected to approve the appointments.

Annan personally introduced the candidates at a news conference, praising Lubbers’ “extraordinary record of high-level accomplishment” and Obaid’s “quarter-century of experience.”

Lubbers, 61, will succeed the current commissioner, Sadako Ogata of Japan, when she retires at the end of the year after a decade in the post. The refugee agency aids more than 22 million people around the world in the midst of wars, epidemics and natural disasters.

Lubbers’ nomination caught many diplomats by surprise because his name was not on a short list of five candidates and because he has little field experience. After stepping down as prime minister in 1994, Lubbers headed the World Wildlife Fund and taught a course on globalization at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Even Lubbers was surprised by Annan’s invitation.

“It was sort of a shock,” he said, “but a pleasant one.”

Annan said Lubbers came to his attention only three weeks ago as a candidate who would receive even wider backing than another Dutch contender, Jan Pronk, minister of housing, physical planning and the environment. Lubbers’ appointment also would allow other top nominees now serving in Bosnia-Herzegovina and East Timor to stay in the field, the secretary-general said.

Annan said that, even more than on-the-ground experience, the sprawling refugee agency needs an adept administrator. Lubbers ran a country for 12 years, Annan noted, and worked with the private sector and aid groups, which should help him win the confidence of donor countries, relief organizations and agency staff.

Obaid’s selection as head of the U.N. Population Fund would put her in charge of an agency that promotes equality between the sexes, reproductive health and education for girls--a remarkable role for a woman from Saudi Arabia, a country that acknowledges that it lags on women’s rights.

“I have been in the U.N. for 25 years, and I have been from the very first day responsible for women’s programs in the Arab region, which is a difficult region for that issue,” said Obaid, 55.