LIMA
Former UN chief Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was known for his peace-making efforts including brokering a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war, died Wednesday in his native Peru, aged 100, his son said. Perez de Cuellar served as UN secretary general from 1981 to 1991, when he was often described as a “pacifist by vocation and nature.” Lauded by his countrymen as one of the most illustrious Peruvians of his era, Perez de Cuellar led the United Nations through a period marked by the fight against world hunger, the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, as well as the civil war in US-supported El Salvador which led to UN-mediated peace talks. — AFP
