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UN denies Libya has appointed a Nicaraguan as UN envoy

31 March 2011 20:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United Nations said Thursday it had not been informed that Libya had appointed a former Nicaraguan priest as its ambassador to the UN in New York, APA reports quoting Earth Times.

News reports said Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, a defrocked Maryknoll priest and former Nicaraguan foreign minister in the 1980s, was appointed by Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa as the country’s new representative to the UN. But Kusa resigned his post and defected to London on Wednesday, and it was not known whether his alleged appointment of the Nicaraguan was valid.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN has not received any communication from Tripoli on the appointment.

The Libyan ambassador to the UN and his deputy left their posts in early March after denouncing Moamer Gaddafi’s military repression of civilians and the deaths of more than 1,000 Libyans in the crackdown of pro-democracy protests.

It would also have to be clarified whether a Nicaraguan national could represent Libya at the UN.

D’Escoto Brockmann served as president of the UN General Assembly in the 2008-2009 period, during which time he used the forum to roundly denounce the United States policies around the world.

He represented Nicaragua’s Sandinista government in the 1980s, which was fighting Washington for backing rebels in the Central American nation. He was educated in the US and ordained a Roman Catholic priest before entering politics at home.

He is still called Father d’Escoto at the UN, a title he preferred when he presided over the 192-nation assembly.

He had scheduled a press conference at UN headquarters on Thursday, which the UN said was postponed at the last minute until Friday.

The Nicaraguan mission to the UN requested the room for the press conference, which was suddenly closed Thursday for construction work. Apparently he was visiting the US on a tourist visa.