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Giandomenico Pico, an Italian diplomat who, as chief UN negotiator, helped resolve conflicts around the globe – notably securing the discharge of 11 hostages held by terrorist teams in Lebanon within the early Nineteen Nineties. Spent a couple of 12 months within the Center East. – Died Sunday in Wilton, Conn., north of Norwalk. He was 75 years outdated.
His son Giacomo stated that the reason for his dying in an assisted residing residence was problems from Alzheimer's illness.
Mr Pico spent 20 years with the United Nations, a lot of it in a collection of vaguely outlined roles that put him on the heart of among the world's most harmful scorching spots.
Early in his profession he helped handle the battle between Greece and Turkey over the island of Cyprus; He mediated between New Zealand and France after the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland harbor by French secret brokers in 1986; And in 1988 he helped prepare the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Tall, well-dressed and all the time discreet, Mr Pico was one thing of an enigma within the UN forms. He would disappear with out discover from headquarters in Manhattan, and floor a couple of days later in Lebanon, Iran or Afghanistan, usually with out passing via border controls en route.
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who met Mr. Pico after they each labored in Cyprus and who appointed him as his private assistant after changing into Secretary-Common in 1981, usually referred to Mr. Pico as his “chief troubleshooter” and “unarmed Used to say “soldier”. Diplomacy.”
One of many world's most tough crises within the late Eighties was the hostage-taking of many Westerners, together with greater than two dozen People, by Hezbollah and different terrorist teams, usually for years at a time. Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar made it a private mission to free them, and he despatched Mr. Pico to perform it.
Their leverage was Iran, a sponsor of teams like Hezbollah, which by 1990 discovered itself at a crossroads. With the top of the Chilly Warfare and the dying of the nation's fundamentalist supreme chief, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the nation appeared open to rapprochement with the West. Releasing the final hostages held in Lebanon appeared an actual risk.
Mr. Pico later joked that within the early Nineteen Nineties he spent extra time in Tehran than in his native Italy. Throughout almost a 12 months of talks, he’ll first meet with Iranian officers, then journey to Syria. From there he could be taken in a army automotive, with curtains over the again seat so nobody might see him, to the Lebanese border to satisfy his hostage-takers.
He remembered ready for them on an empty avenue in Beirut at midnight.
“The automotive stopped onerous, a bag was put over my head, then I used to be put within the trunk of the automotive, one thing I don't advocate to anybody, particularly for those who're 6 foot 3 inches like me,” he stated in 2013. Informed the BBC.
He knew the dangers: one of many hostages, an Anglican officer named Terry Waite, had been taken captive on the same mission in 1987. However, he traveled with out bodyguards and infrequently went to conferences alone.
He made 9 journeys to Lebanon to satisfy the abductors, every time bringing again a number of hostages, together with Mr. White and The Related Press reporter Terry Anderson, who had been held by Hezbollah since 1985.
Eight days after Mr. Anderson's launch, on December 12, 1991, President George H.W. Bush introduced Mr. Pico with the Presidential Award for Distinctive Service.
The award quotation stated, “His skillful diplomacy with Center Japanese governments and authorities and representatives of hostage holders has resulted within the freedom of many individuals held captive within the area.” “His private braveness within the face of hazard and his dedication to the mission symbolize the very best traditions of the worldwide civil service.”
Giandomenico Pico was born on October 8, 1948 in Udine, a metropolis in northeastern Italy, not removed from the border with what was then Yugoslavia. His father, Giacomo, was a pharmacist, and his mom, Ares, ran the family.
He acquired a bachelor's diploma in political science from the College of Padua, Italy, in 1971, and a grasp's diploma in worldwide relations from the College of California, Santa Barbara in 1972.
He married Elena Carretta in 1973. They later received divorced. He married Kate Cooney in 2000; Later in addition they received divorced. Alongside together with his son Giacomo, he’s survived by one other son, Liam, and a granddaughter.
Mr. Pico out of the blue utilized to work on the United Nations and received a job on the lowest skilled pay grade within the Division of Political and Safety Council Affairs. Two years later he joined the Workplace of Particular Political Affairs to concentrate on battle decision, a publish that quickly introduced him to the entrance strains in Cyprus.
By the late Nineteen Seventies he had developed a status as a dependable and low-profile fixer. After Cyprus he labored within the Center East, together with the multi-year effort to finish the Iran–Iraq Warfare. It lastly got here to an finish in 1988.
His mentor, Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar, left the workplace of the Secretary-Common in 1991, and Mr. Pico knew that his time on the United Nations would additionally in all probability be coming to an finish. Though he admired the brand new workplace holder, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, he realized that Mr. Boutros-Ghali had his personal priorities and his personal employees.
Mr. Pico had one other mission. The 2 remaining hostages had been Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Strubig, each German help staff.
Regardless of being instructed by an Iranian official that many terrorists wished him lifeless, he returned to Lebanon, a tense dialog he described in his 1999 memoir, “Man With out a Gun: One Diplomat's Secret Wrestle to Free the Hostages, Combat Terrorism.” , finish”. Finish a struggle.” In Beirut, he met with officers from Germany, Lebanon and Syria; After a number of days of tense negotiations, each males had been launched.
Throughout the celebrations that adopted, Mr. Pico referred to as his secretary in New York and requested her to ship to Mr. Boutros-Ghali's workplace a letter he had left on his desk. This contained his resignation.
He flew to Frankfurt with the Germans, however he declined a suggestion to attend their press convention on the airport.
He wrote in his memoir, “As quickly as consideration was drawn to them, I slipped out of the airplane with out paying consideration and walked beneath the airplane and throughout the tarmac to a ready automotive.” “Inside seconds I used to be gone.”